Prime Directive: Hero
by awkwardnaut626
Summary: What if Izuku's talent for analyzing was part of a Quirk all along? Will he become the next Symbol of Peace, or will his superior mind forge a new future? Chapters 1-12 rewritten. (AU, OP Izuku)
1. Chapter 1: Activation

Disclaimer: This was inspired from the fanfiction _My Hero Academia: Plus Ultra!_ by Sora 101. I do not own anything from My Hero Academia, nor do I own concepts of any other manga, anime, videogame or tv shows used in this story.

Author's note: This story is simply written for fun, I expect I would make plenty of amateur mistakes.

 **Texts like this** are Izuku's voluntary thoughts from his perspective.

 ** _[Texts like this]_** represents thoughts that comes from his subconscious, where the majority of his quirk manifests. Izuku's subconscious thoughts are not actually verbal. To Izuku, they are merely flashes of notions that happen in very short moments. After all, they come from his intuition.

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Activation**

 _Izuku, age 4_

 _"_ _I'm afraid there's no hope for him," said the doctor._ _His patient, a young boy with green frizzy hair, felt all his hopes and dreams shatter in an instant._

That night, Midoriya Izuku watched the video of All Might's debut on repeat, over and over. Despite the tears streaming down his face, he gritted his teeth and told himself:

 **I'll never give up on being a hero...**

 **I don't care what anyone tells me otherwise...**

 _ **[System initialized;**_ ** _Sequencing system priorities...]_**

 ** _[Operator directive logged]_**

"Huh?" Izuku exclaimed, confused by the strange yet affirming flashes of thought that seemed to calm down his emotional state. He tried to recall that thought again, much to his confusion, but to no avail.

 **Maybe I'm just too tired, I should probably go to sleep...**

* * *

 _A week later, at the neighbourhood playground_

"Enough, Kacchan!" Izuku screamed with a trembling voice, as he imposed himself between three young bullies and their victim.

"Y… you already made him cry! Stop it!" The green-haired boy stuttered as he tried to muster up an imposing stance, but the tears on his face and his shaking knees were not helping.

Bakugou Katsuki, a boy about Izuku's age with spiky blonde hair, stood proud as the leader of the trio. He smacked his hands together to show off his Explosion quirk, producing a small burst of embers along with a puff of smoke. Two other young boys flanked beside him: Bulk, a bald chubby boy flaunting the red bat-like wings on his back by hovering a few inches above the ground; and Skull, a skinny boy wearing a cap, flexed his tendril-like fingers to unnatural lengths.

"So, the quirkless wonder Deku thinks he can play hero, eh?" mocked Bakugou, as the three bullies grinned and approached Izuku.

"Yeah, you don't even have a quirk, wimp! You think you can take on the three of us?" Bulk boasted as he flapped the wings on his back menacingly.

 **What do I do?! I don't even have a quirk!**

 **I can't even protect myself, how am I supposed to protect someone else?! I can't do this!**

 ** _[Assessing situation...]_**

 ** _[Assimilating memory data…]_**

 ** _[Constructing spatial and kinetic parameters…; Integrating kinaesthetic framework...]_**

In a literal blink of his eyes, Izuku felt a wave of calm and clarity wash over him. A new awareness of his own body in its entirety: the subtle breeze against his hair and skin, every pulse, every twitch, every shiver in his breath; from every tension between muscle and bone, to the shifting of his body's weight against the ground. His trembling ceased, and so did his tears. Then, Bakugou lunged towards him with his right arm cocked back.

 ** _[Analyzing target kinaesthetics...]_**

 ** _[Incoming threat vector; Redirect impact]_**

Izuku's left arm reflexively moved to slap Bakugou's right swing aside, causing the blond boy to lose his balance and stumble.

 ** _[Target imbalanced; Exploit opening]_**

Without skipping a beat, Izuku instinctively lowered his stance, extending a leg to trip Bakugou by his ankles.

The other two bullies merely saw Izuku make a few subtle movements, and then Bakugou was already on the ground.

The spiky blonde sat there in disbelief for a moment, as dumbfounded as the other kids who just saw what happened. Realizing what he had just done, Izuku anxiously extended a hand to Bakugou. "Ah! I-I didn't mean to do that, Kacchan! I'm so sorry!"

Infuriated at Izuku's apology, the blonde rose to his feet and shoved Izuku to the ground. "What the hell?! You're just a quirkless little shit!" The blonde raised his arms once again, ready to strike.

 **Ow! That hurt! Good thing this playground is covered in sand…**

 ** _[Assessing situation...]_**

 ** _[Operator position vulnerable; Analyzing optimal course of action...]_**

 ** _[Tactical advantage found: Granular projectile, minute particles, adequate optical irritant, minimal trauma]_**

Automatically, Izuku's hand grabbed a fistful of sand beside him before another thought stopped him.

 ** _[Warning: Target outside range; Wait for target approach_** ** _…_** ** _]_**

 ** _[…]_**

 ** _[Target within range]_**

"I'm so sorry, Kacchan!" Izuku proceeded to throw the handful of sand into Bakugou's eyes, right before the bully could stand over him. The blonde cried out in agony as he hunched over from the searing pain.

 ** _[Escape window available; Plotting optimum escape route…]_**

Immediately, Izuku went to grab the other crying boy's hand, and sprinted away from the playground. "Quick, now's our chance!"

Still bewildered by the turn of events, Bakugou's two lackeys simply stood with their mouths agape, and watched Izuku run away with their newest victim. And Bakugou, half-blind and incapacitated, could only frantically swing his arms around him while screaming aloud. "Get back here Deku! I'm gonna kill you!"

* * *

 _Evening_

"Mom, I'm serious! I think just found my quirk!" Izuku said through a mouthful of rice at the dinner table.

Seeing her son smile again after a week of watching him being depressed was a great relief for Midoriya Inko.

"Alright, alright, Izuku dear. I'm just glad nobody got hurt, but are you really sure it's not just my baby boy being super smart?" Inko said with a giggle as she tickled Izuku's cheek.

"No, Mom! It doesn't feel the same as when I'm thinking about new ideas with hero quirks, you know? It felt different! It was, uhm, almost like I just _knew_ what to do!" A few grains of rice spattered onto the table as Izuku babbled excitedly with his mouth full.

"Sweetie, whether you have a quirk or not. I want you to know that I'll support you no matter what, okay?" Inko didn't want to give her son any false hope, not after what he just went through. Then, she turned her attention to the kitchen counter behind her, to grab a small vial of soy sauce with her Attraction of Small Objects quirk.

Izuku intently watched his mother's telekinetic quirk in action, her palm facing towards the vial, fingers repeating a gentle tugging motion; and the vial slowly floated towards her hand, bit by bit, almost like the swimming motion of a jellyfish.

 ** _[Analyzing event…]_**

 ** _[Insufficient data; Inquire more information]_**

"Hey Mom, can you explain your quirk to me again? Like, tell me more about it this time!" Izuku asked eagerly as he put down his empty bowl and chopsticks.

"What, again?" Inko chuckled at her son's enthusiasm, despite having recited the tale, or rather, _explanation_ dozens of times before. Most children would have their mothers repeat their favourite bedtime stories to them, to Izuku, this was the equivalent of it.

"Pleasepleaseplease?"

"Oh sweetie, I don't know what else to tell you. As you know, I can drag items and make them float towards me. The size of the item is limited to anything that can fit in my palm and light enough for me to carry with one hand. I can always pull them to about the length of my hand. If something is farther away, then I have to pull multiple times for it to reach my grasp."

 ** _[Information: Multiple force application on target object required if exceeding reach]_**

 ** _[Assumption: Target object must have periods of acceleration and deceleration]_**

 ** _[Deduction: Target object must have zero velocity at arbitrary point in displacement vector]_**

"Mom, wouldn't that mean you can hold a small object in mid-air without it moving?" Izuku wondered.

"Oh? Now that you mention it, I've never thought of it that way. Let me try. Hmm…" Inko replied, as she focused on the soy sauce vial again that's now on the table. She reached out to pull it towards her, and then tried to hold it in the air before it reached her grasp.

The object stopped in mid-air, and for a split second it almost seemed like it would actually stay there, when Inko's outstretched palm started to tremble. She lost her grip on the vial and it fell onto the table, spilling some soy sauce.

"Oh dear, I almost thought that worked! Now I've made a mess..." Inko said as she started to get up from her chair.

 _ **[Preliminary analysis complete; Physical inspection required]**_

"Mom, let me see your hand." Izuku said, as he grabbed her hand and studied it intensely, tracing his fingers along it.

"Izuku? What is it?" The sudden movement surprised Inko, a rising concern in her voice. "Why are you staring at my hand like that? Are you alright, sweetie?"

 ** _[Data acquisition complete; Assimilating…; Optimizing…]_**

 **Whoa… what is this feeling? I feel like I know exactly how mother's quirk works now!**

 **Wait, how is she not using it properly? Shouldn't she know better than-**

 **…** **Oh.**

Inko watched her son anxiously as he stared at his empty rice bowl for a solid ten seconds or so. "Izuku, Izuku? Stop messing around, I'm starting to get worried…"

"I know how it works now!" Izuku yelled as he suddenly sprung to life from his blank stupor, making his mother yelp.

"Don't scare me like that! I was really worried that you're…"

Izuku stood up on his chair and stretched his palm towards the vial, and the vial flew straight into his palm in one single motion.

Both mother and son looked at each other with their jaws slack for a moment.

"Aaaah my baby has my quirk! I'm so proud of you!" exclaimed Inko as she started crying fountains of tears and pulled Izuku into a tight hug. "Your quirk's even better than mine too! Izuku, you're going to be such an amazing hero, I just know it!"

 **I knew it! I'm not quirkless at all! I can't wait to be a proper hero with this quirk I just learned!**

 **Wait, 'learned'?**

 **Is this how quirks are passed down from a parent? That doesn't make sense.**

 ** _[Insufficient data]_**

"Uhm, Mom? I don't know how to explain it, but I feel like I just learned the quirk from you, it's not actually my own."

"Alright, how about we go to the clinic again next week, I'm sure the doctor would be able to help us figure this out." Inko cleaned up the dinner table while humming to herself. "And after I'm done with the dishes, let's give Daddy a call and give him the good news together!"

"Okay!"

* * *

 _The following day_

Izuku was playing with his toys in the living room, as he tried to pull his favourite All Might action figure towards him from the sofa using his new quirk. This time he did it just slow enough that the item would not fall to the ground.

The All Might figure was pulled slowly, bit by bit towards Izuku. "Now, if I do it faster…"

The toy sped up even faster than before and flew into Izuku's grasp. It made Izuku flinch since he was unprepared for that speed. It then bounced off his palm and fell towards the ground.

 **No! All Might! It's going to break!**

Izuku reached out with the quirk again and the toy briefly stopped a few inches above the floor.

 **Hey, that's funny, this feels like playing with a yo-yo.**

 **What if I use the quirk at just the right timing when I'm pulling from above?**

The All Might action figure simply wobbled in the same spot mid-air. As if dangling from an invisible string.

 ** _[Quirk: Puppet String, Assimilation: Complete]_**

* * *

 **Izuku won't be One For All's successor in this AU, I feel like the potential of his own quirk is already powerful enough on its own. His quirk is still just in its stages of infancy, so there will be more developments as the story progresses.**

 **Izuku's quirk allows him to intuitively understand the structure and operation of complex systems without special education or training, including learning someone else's quirk, inherently 'teaching' it to his own body if given enough understanding of it. Basically, it's inspired by Sylar's ability from the Heroes TV series, but with some of my own changes, since I have no plans on making Izuku walk the villain path.**

 **As of 27th October 2019, chapters 1 to 12 have been rewritten.**

 **Feel free to leave a review. Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2: Updating Framework

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from My Hero Academia, nor do I own concepts of any other anime or tv shows used in this story.

Author's note: This story is simply written for fun, I expect I would make plenty of amateur mistakes.

 **Texts like this** are Izuku's voluntary thoughts from his perspective.

 _ **[Texts like this]**_ represents thoughts that comes from his subconscious, where the majority of his quirk manifests. All of Izuku's subconscious thoughts are not actually verbal. To Izuku, they're merely flashes of notions that happen in very short moments. After all, they come from his intuition.

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Updating Framework**

 _Izuku, age 4, two days after quirk discovery_

"Ah, Mrs. Midoriya, welcome back. What seems to be the issue?" greeted the doctor.

"Hello again doctor, well you see-" Inko Midoriya was stopped mid-sentence when Izuku tugged on her hand. "Mom, I want to tell him myself!"

"Oh, alright Izuku. My, my, you're starting to get pretty bold recently young man." Inko smiled as she teased Izuku, whose demeanor seemed slightly different than the timid boy he once was. "They grow up so fast, don't they?"

 _ **[Activating quirk: Puppet String]**_

Before the doctor could even reply to that small exchange, Izuku reached out a hand towards a pen in the doctor's coat pocket, and it flew into Izuku's grasp.

"What the… How did…?!" exclaimed the doctor as he stammered at the unexpected display, Izuku grinned smugly at the doctor in return.

 **That's for trying to crush my hopes and dreams. Jerk!**

"Wow, I didn't think… in my whole career I've never witnessed such a case such as young Midoriya here. I mean, the research regarding the lack of the pinky toe joint and it's correlation to quirks were very prominent, so nobody really denied their validity," explained the doctor as he rubbed the top of his bald head, still reeling from the shock.

 **Wow, I never noticed how shiny his head is** **…**

 **Oh? His watch looks really shiny too, it looks like…**

 _ **[Analyzing target object…; Functional error detected]**_

… **it's going two seconds slower every day, because a 'spinny metal thingy' inside is loose from a rough tooth?**

 _ **[Insufficient linguistic data]**_

 **I'm not going to say that to the doctor, I don't want my friends to think I'm more of a weirdo than I already am...**

 **Maybe I should ask Mom to help me learn more words when we get back...**

 _ **[Sub-directive logged]**_

"Hmm, there have been some recent theories that the lack of a joint could just be another symptom of having a quirk and not the cause itself, this case could mean that the theory isn't entirely wrong," added the doctor after some consideration. "Anyway, let's proceed with your son's quirk examination, Mrs. Midoriya. I'm sure you and your son must be looking forward to this."

* * *

Izuku and his mother were ushered by a nurse into an examination room that resembled a kindergarten's toy room, arranged with floor cushions and chabudai tables (Japanese-style short tables). The doctor followed in moments after, holding a clipboard of papers in his hand. Across the room, another family of three could be seen with another doctor and nurse, having their own consultation session.

"Now then, if you would, Mrs. Midoriya, please sit down here. Young Izuku can sit atop the table, it allows us to observe the child better. No worries, the table is quite short and the floor here is cushioned." The words flowed from the doctor like a well-rehearsed speech as he prepared the quirk exam.

After Inko settled down on her cushion and Izuku sat on the center of the table, the doctor clicked his pen and said: "Alright young Izuku, show me that quirk of yours again." The accompanying nurse then placed a wooden letter block in front of Izuku.

 _ **[Activating quirk: Puppet String]**_

Izuku pulled in the block in one fluid motion and took a closer inspection of it.

 _ **[Analyzing target object…]**_

 _ **[Structural weakness found]**_

 **Hmm? The inside of this block feels kind of crispy... no, flaky...? Crackly?**

 **Feels like its going to break apart if this corner here gets dropped on a few more times...**

 **I better put it back, I don't want to break it and get in trouble.**

"Uhm, I don't think this is _my_ quirk though…" Izuku said as he gently put the block back onto the table.

"What do you mean?" asked the doctor as he looked up from his clipboard.

"Well, erm, it's actually my mom's. It feels like I learned it from her?" Izuku replied hesitantly.

"Ah, I see. No need to worry. When a quirk similar to a parent's manifests in a child, they tend to grasp it much quicker than if they had a completely different quirk. It's normal for you to feel that way because of how much you've seen your mother use hers. I assure you it's your own quirk through and through."

 **Really? I'm pretty sure I know how I feel about this quirk though…**

 _ **[Insufficient data]**_

… **but what do I know? I'm only four and he's the doctor.**

After that, the doctor performed a few more tests. Gauging how strong he can pull an object, and how heavy of an object can be pulled, etc. The results turned out similar to his mother's own test results, albeit slightly better.

"Alright, that covers the tests. I will be marking down Izuku's quirk as 'Attract Small Objects'. If there are any new developments in your son's quirk, feel free to bring him back so we can update his information, Mrs. Midoriya. Thank you both for dropping by. You're free to go now, have a nice day." said the doctor with a bow before leaving the room.

"Well, was that fun, Izuku?" Inko asked Izuku as they exited the hospital.

"It was alright Mom, I couldn't understand some of the words the doctor said though," said Izuku with a slight frown.

"Aww, it's alright Izuku. You're still very young, there's a lot you don't know yet. If you're curious about something you can always ask me you know?" Inko smiles as she fondly ruffled Izuku's hair.

"How about we go celebrate your new quirk with some ice-cream?" suggested Inko.

 **YES! ICE CREAM!**

 _ **[HIGH ENERGY SUSTENANCE IMMINENT]**_

Izuku nodded his head rapidly like a woodpecker, making his mother giggle with glee.

* * *

 **Hmm, I couldn't fully understand what the doctor was talking about...**

 **Maybe I should try to learn more things, that might help me figure out what I've been going through since I last saw Kacchan.**

Upon reaching home, Izuku asked his mother: "Mom, can you help me look for stuff about quirks? I kinda want to learn about them a bit more in detail…"

 _ **[Sub-directive triggered: Inquire linguistic data]**_

"…Oh! I also need to learn more words too, so I can know how to talk properly to grownups."

"Anything for you, Izuku dear. I'll see what I can do later. Now, let's get you cleaned up first." Inko cheerfully said as she kissed Izuku on the forehead, feeling proud of her son's sudden interest for self-improvement.

* * *

 _A week later_

"Forward march~~! Members of the Bakugou Hero Agency~~!" sang Bakugou in a broken tone, as his two lackeys Bulk and Skull trailed behind him, followed by Izuku.

The group of kids were playing pretend-heroes in the nearby forest. With Bakugou in the front, igniting his Explosion quirk in short bursts, they marched single-file towards a large fallen tree trunk spanning across a river gorge.

 **Cool! That tree trunk is huge! Looks like its big enough for us to cross-**

 _ **[Analyzing local topography…]**_

 _ **[Caution: Low friction surface detected]**_

… **Wait! That's not safe at all! That icky green stuff on the trunk is slippery!**

"Guys! Wait! That bridge isn't safe! We should turn back and find another way!" yelled Izuku just as the group was about to step on the bridge.

The three boys stopped and sneered at Izuku. "Pfft, what's wrong Deku? Scared? Don't follow us then, we're gonna have even _more_ fun without you around anyway," snickered Bakugou.

"Yeah Deku, scared?" parroted both Bulk and Skull.

Deku watched as the three turned their backs to him and started to cross the bridge.

 **Sigh, I really hope Kacchan will be alright...**

 **Those other two should be fine since their quirks can stop them from falling off the bridge...**

 **I really want to follow them, but I'm getting a really bad feeling from that bridge, maybe there's a way under it?**

 _ **[Analyzing local topography…; Analyzing footwear…]**_

 _ **[Cross-referencing**_ _ **data…; Plotting optimal route...]**_

 _ **[Multiple optimal routes found]**_

 **Aha, there is! My shoes should let me step on those rocks without slipping.**

Izuku started to make his way down the gorge gracefully, when he heard a scream from above that made his stomach drop. Looking up, Izuku caught a glimpse of Bakugou just as he was about to tumble down the side of the bridge.

 **OH NO! KACCHAN!**

The world shifted into razor sharp clarity once more. His eyes darted from Bakugou, to the shallow river down below, and then reality seemed to unveil its very fabric right before his eyes. He began to instinctively _feel_ the momentum of the boy's flailing mass, piercing through the warm summer air, the churning of the cold river below, and the rigid unyielding stones underneath; each of the sensations merging and weaving together into a vivid multidimensional tapestry.

 _ **[Analyzing target trajectory, adjusting for erratic limb movement…]**_

 _ **[Analyzing riverbed topography, adjusting for water refraction…]**_

 _ **[Analyzing fluid mechanics…; Constructing fluid mechanism framework…]**_

 _ **[Data acquisition complete; Synchronizing data…]**_

 _ **[Analyzing possible target trauma…]**_

 _ **[ALERT: Cranial impact to target imminent; Trauma severity: Danger]**_

 **That part of the river's too shallow! I have to help him!**

 _ **[Operator directive added: Minimize trauma to Subject Kacchan]**_

 _ **[Recommendation: Interfere target trajectory]**_

 **I'm too far to catch him in time!**

 _ **[Activating quirk: Puppet String]**_

 **I only have enough time to nudge a part of him towards me once! I have to make this count!**

 _ **[Analyzing optimal course of action…]**_

 **Aaand… THERE!**

At this point, Bakugou was tumbling through the air, halfway through his fall. Izuku reached out with two palms, waited for the right moment with an uncanny intensity in his eyes, and used Puppet String through both hands to yank Bakugou by his wristwatch with all his might.

The pull caused Bakugou to rotate horizontally mid-air, just enough for his entire body to fall flat onto a deeper part of the river.

 _ **[Analyzing target...; Subject Kacchan secured]**_

"Kacchan!" Izuku yelled as he practically ran towards where Bakugou landed, his feet planted firmly on every foothold as he went down a steep slope of wet gravel and damp rocks like it was flat ground.

Bakugou sat up from where he landed, the water up to his chest, as he turned to his two lackeys atop the bridge. "I'm fine!" said Bakugou with a grin.

"Kacchan! Are you okay? Can you stand? That would've been really bad if you hit your head..." Izuku said as he extended a helping hand.

A spiteful scowl formed on Bakugou's expression, directed at Izuku. "Wh-what's wrong, Kacchan? Are you injured?"

 _ **[Analyzing target…]**_

 _ **[No trauma detected]**_

Izuku breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, phew. Looks like you're not injured. Here, I'll help you up."

"Don't look at me with that face!" Bakugou screamed.

Izuku was stunned by the unexpected outburst. "What? What did I do wrong?"

"Nothing was wrong! I didn't need your help! Your useless quirk didn't do anything either, all you did was spin me around and made me dizzy!" snarled Bakugou.

Fuming with spite and irritation, the blonde stood up and shoved Izuku, the same way he pushed him at the playground, the same way he bullied and belittled him all the times before. But Izuku didn't fall, and merely stumbled half a step back as if he was ready for it this time, though he didn't seem to notice this himself.

"What...?" Izuku didn't feel any physical pain, but his expression was visibly wounded. "Why are you so angry at me?"

"Because you're just a loser who sucks at everything! I don't need your pity! Stop looking down on me!" Bakugou grit his teeth, and sucker punched Izuku square in the face.

Bakugou was expecting Izuku to burst into tears and run away as he always did, but today, he stood his ground. The emerald green eyes that he always associated with cowardice now glared back at him with a bloody nose, and Izuku promptly returned the favor with a right hook to his cheek, causing the blonde to fall back onto the riverbed once more.

The bully could only stare at Izuku with a mixture of anger and disbelief, speechless at his unprecedented retaliation.

"I just wanted to help! Can't you see?!" Izuku yelled, then he pointed at the riverbed beside Bakugou. "You see those rocks just under the water there? You were going to fall head first into it! I pulled you out of the way because I didn't want you to get hurt!"

Reimagining his fall from that height, and seeing that shallow riverbed, made the colour drain from Bakugou's face.

Izuku continued with a somber tone as his voice softened, his eyes starting to well up with moisture. "I've had enough. I'm tired of being bullied by you. I used to think you were _amazing_ , because you were so good at everything you do... but now you're just a jerk. You've been a jerk ever since you got your quirk, you know that? I never once looked down on you..."

"And I thought you were my friend..." Izuku mumbled as he wiped away his tears, climbed back up the slope and quietly walked home alone, leaving the three other boys flabbergasted where they were.

* * *

 _Later that evening_

*DING DONG*

"Hello?" Midoriya Inko opened her front door to see Bakugou standing by the doorway.

"Oh, its Katsuki-chan! I'm sorry for what happened between you and Izuku..." said Inko with an apologetic smile.

A mild bruise could be seen on Bakugou's left cheek, in addition, his left ear was also slightly swollen, as if someone had recently pinched it quite vigorously. "No, Mrs. Midoriya, don't be. It's… actually my fault. Can I talk to Izuku for a moment?"

Overhearing the conversation, Izuku approached the front door, one of his nostrils was stuffed with some slightly bloodied cotton. "What do you want, Kacchan?" Inko smiled and nodded at Bakugou, then went back into the house to give the two boys their own space.

"Hey, I'm sorry for what I said earlier. That wasn't cool, what I did." Bakugou muttered half-heartedly.

"Your mom made you come here to apologize, right?" Izuku retorted as he crossed his arms.

"Wha- How'd you know?"

Izuku tapped a finger on his own ear. "She made you say it because you were too stubborn to, right?"

"Heh, you got me there." Bakugou chuckled. "But look, what really want to say is, can we be friends again? Properly, this time."

Izuku frowned and put on a stern face. "Why? So you can keep on bullying me?"

"Nah, I couldn't even if I wanted to. You've got the guts to fight back now, I think that's pretty cool, ya know? I guess you're not as useless as I thought you were," said the blonde with a cheeky grin.

"No," said Izuku, his expression unchanging.

A look of disappointment started to form on Bakugou's face when Izuku continued with a smirk: "But we can be _best_ friends though."

"Jeez, you really got me there Dek- sorry, I mean Izuku." Bakugou chuckled nervously as he let out a sigh of relief.

"Actually, I kinda like that nickname, but from now on it should mean _dekiru_! (Japanese for: 'you can do it')" Izuku boasted with a hint of pride.

"Alright, since you asked for it, Deku it is then!" Bakugou then reached out for a handshake. "Best friends?"

"Best friends!" Izuku enthusiastically returned the gesture.

 _ **[Analyzing target physiology…]**_

 _ **[Quirk detected; Analyzing quirk mechanism…]**_

 **Oh, cool! So Kacchan's explosions come from his sweat? That's so gross and awesome at the same time!**

 _ **[Data acquisition complete; Assimilating…]**_

 **Huh? What's this feel-**

*KAPOW*

A tiny explosion between their clasped hands interrupted Izuku's thoughts as they both flinched and pulled their hands back.

"Ow, that stings! Why'd you do that Kacchan?" asked a bewildered Izuku as he looked at Bakugou.

Equally confused, Bakugou examined his right hand and hastily said: "T-that wasn't me! I've had this quirk for months! I'd never let it misfire like that! How did that-"

"...Uhhh, Deku? _What the hell_ _is that?_ " Bakugou's eyes widened as he pointed at Izuku's hands.

Izuku raised his palms, and the two boys watched with astonishment as his hands emitted a shower of tiny sparks and crackling embers.

 _ **[Quirk: Explosion, Assimilation complete]**_

* * *

 **One of Izuku's quirk's side effects is making him more intelligent than he would be if he was quirkless. Over time, he is going to be more assertive and more confident with himself compared to the canonical Izuku, he's not going to be a pushover. This will have a gradual butterfly effect on the story and characters.**

 **As of 27th October 2019, chapters 1 to 12 have been rewritten.**

 **Feel free to leave a review. Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3: Establishing Parameters

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from My Hero Academia, nor do I own concepts of any other anime, manga, videogame or TV shows used in this story.

Author's note: This story is simply written for fun, I expect I would make plenty of amateur mistakes.

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Establishing Parameters**

 _Izuku, age 14, Takoba Municipal Beach Park, weekend early morning_

"Yo Deku, you're late by an hour bro! The fuck were you doing?" Bakugou greeted his best friend with a grin, as he put down a broken television onto a pile of electronic junk.

The beach had been used by people as a garbage dump for years, despite the government erecting a big red sign saying _'No Dumping!'_ right at the entrance. That was mainly because the sea currents in that section washed ashore anything carried by the sea causing a pile-up, which then the public took advantage of because of plausible deniability. Due to those reasons, very few people visit that beach for its intended purpose.

"Sorry I'm late, Kacchan! I got caught up reading a book." Izuku replied as he approached.

Both boys are in their usual training outfits. Izuku wore a plain white t-shirt with green track pants, Bakugou had a black tank top with brown cargo shorts. Their muscular physiques looked slightly more developed than other boys their age.

"Again? What is it this time? Some encyclopedia? Another old book by one of those thinkers or phlogistinators of yours?" Bakugou sneered with mock ridicule as he did some stretches.

" _Philosophers_ , but yeah, it's Sun Tzu's _Art of War_. I was rereading it for a game theory puzzle I'm working on." Izuku corrected Bakugou, then he shook his head and chuckled. " _Phlogistinator?_ Kacchan, you've been playing too much Squad Fortress 2, how are you not bored of that game after 5 minutes?"

"That's because _my_ quirk doesn't make me play like I'm using an aimbot, bro! That happened with every FPS you've ever played! I don't even know if I should feel jealous or sorry for you, you should've seen your face when you got insta-banned from Overseer!" quipped Bakugou as he burst into laughter at the inside-joke.

"Ha ha, very funny. I can't believe those morons still insisted I was hacking even after they _manually_ reviewed my gameplay. Whatever, that was a dumb game anyway," Izuku sulked as he went to pick up a broken sofa.

"By the way, how long have we been doing this? I swear this sofa has been here since we started, and that TV over there too." said Bakugou as he walked over to help lift the other end of the furniture.

"Hmm, give or take a year I guess? I didn't really keep track, we just stuck with the same weekly schedule this whole time. I never bothered to change our routine." Izuku remarked with a shrug.

"How'd you first find this place anyway? I wouldn't even think of using a fuckin' dump like this to do hero training." Bakugou asked as they hauled the sofa towards a broken refrigerator.

"Hmm, just luck, I guess? I came here looking for scrap parts so I could help Mom fix the microwave. Nobody comes here because of all this trash, and it's free. So this place just seemed perfect since, y'know, the thing with my quirk."

"Ah, right, that. Which reminds me, how's your dad doing?" Bakugou simply let go of the sofa without bothering to put it down gently, unlike Izuku.

"Oh he's fine, you know how he is. Last time we talked he kept ranting about qubit probes and how shitty their designs are, he's still stuck on deciphering all that junk data he got from my last scans."

"Qubits? The fuck? Aren't those quantum bits? He thinks your quirk has something to do with quantum physics or some shit?"

"I've no idea, it's just his hypothesis for now. Well, more like a hunch, really. No way to prove it yet." Izuku said nonchalantly, then he grinned at bakugou with a raised eyebrow. "Not bad, Kacchan, I didn't think you'd know what a qubit was. I thought you hated nerdy stuff?"

"As if I have a choice you fucking nerd! That's from hearing your damn mumbling all the time!" Bakugou retorted with annoyance by throwing an old sandal towards Izuku's head, which he promptly ducked under.

"Hah, you missed, _nerd_!" taunted Izuku as he immediately turned tail and ran.

"You're the only fuckin' nerd here, you little shit! GET BACK HERE!"

* * *

"C'mon, that all you got?! Get the fuck up!" Bakugou hollered from the top of an old refrigerator. His shadow loomed over Izuku, who was slumped onto an old sofa. This was Izuku's turn at being the chaser in their cat-and-mouse game, which was meant to train their agility and stamina. The chase revolved around a makeshift parkour obstacle course, built from the assortment of furniture they were hauling around earlier.

"Yeah... wait, just gimme a sec..." Izuku muttered with a ragged breath as he continued to sweat profusely.

"If you were chasing a villain, they'd have gotten away already! Get your ass up!"

"Gimme a break, man. We've... already run like... thirteen laps or something, could you just cut me some slack... for once?"

"If I did, you think you'd ever have a fucking chance of even making it into U.A.?! I promised to push your lazy ass, I'm not about to stop now!" Bakugou hopped down, landed right in front of Izuku, and picked up a fistful of sand with a devious grin on his face.

"Oh no. Don't you dare, Kacchan! I've already got enough sand in my shoes..." Izuku stood up in horror and began to back away with a wobble in his feet, his trembling arms raised in anticipation as his shoulder muscles burned with fatigue. "I'm up, I'm up! NO, STOP!"

Bakugou reached through Izuku's futile defense and tugged on his collar, tossing the sand into his shirt. He then turned around and bolted instantly. "Catch me if ya can, nerd! Enjoy the sand spa!"

"AAARGH, YOU PRICK!" Izuku screamed as he felt like millions of ants were crawling inside the front of his shirt, the sensation only exacerbated by the tactile sensitivity of his quirk. He immediately reached under his shirt, and used Puppet String to draw away every grain of sand on his body like a vacuum.

 _ **[Activating quirk: Air Cannon]**_

Now with a handful of sand in his grasp, air started to swirl and converge at his forearm, creating a spiral flux from elbow to wrist that flowed into a sphere at his palm. Izuku let go of the sand and the sphere of compressed air encapsulated the grains at its center, he then straightened the arm towards Bakugou and released the contraption with a blast of gust _._

The blonde turned around reflexively at the sound, and shot down the projectile of sand with a burst of Explosion. "Whoa! Never seen _that_ before, is that a new trick with my quirk?"

"Nah, different quirk, got this from that new transfer student Nobita." Izuku replied with an irritated frown. "Doesn't pack much of a punch, but I thought of a few uses for it, like this."

Izuku then repeated the Air Cannon trick, but this time using nitroglycerin sweat from his own version of Explosion as the projectile. He then fired it just to Bakugou's side, blowing the doors off an old cupboard and knocking it over.

"You wanna keep this up? See if you can outrun this?" Izuku waved his palm as he glared at Bakugou. "Or can we actually stop training early today? There's a special lunch offer at the stall today and I don't want us to miss it."

"Pfft, like you could hit me with that weakass arm cannon, dumbass." Bakugou scoffed, then he shrugged. "Alright, fine, I guess we can make an exception today. I'm getting hungry too."

* * *

 _Noon_

"Hey, the U.A. entrance exam is less than a year away from now, you make any progress with mutation quirks yet?" said Bakugou as the two rinsed their shoes using a nearby public tap.

"Still nothing. I can't seem to figure out how to grow it all at once. Best I can do is to go through the mutation's development stages, just like the original user did. But then, I also still can't get it to grow when I'm not thinking about it. Like, look at this, I spent like two hours staring at my hand trying to manifest the quirk, and this was as far as I got. No way I'm ever doing that again." Izuku extended a fist to Bakugou, and made a small patch of rough gravel appear on a knuckle, then it faded back into his skin. "The guy said it took a year for his Stone Gauntlet to grow completely, there's no way I can ever make that work."

"Wait, did you actually stare at your hand for two fucking hours? Like you're watching paint dry?" Bakugou snickered.

"Well, I thought if I kept doing it, it would pick up speed and-" said Izuku nonchalantly, then he stopped himself and rolled his eyes when Bakugou burst into laughter. "Yeah, ha ha, laugh it off. Watching paint dry would've been much easier, less taxing on my brain. Actually nevermind, that probably would've been just as torturing."

The two then put their shoes on a metal bench that had a giant scorch mark on it. Bakugou then backed away a few steps as Izuku inhaled a deep gulp of air.

 ** _[Activating quirk: Fire Breath]_**

Izuku then started blowing out streams of hot air like a hair dryer, by carefully maintaining a bare minimum of his father's quirk, and making sure he was ready to turn his face away in case he felt a sneeze coming this time. About a minute into the process, he suddenly straightened up, a look of realization on his face.

"Oh! I just figured out the answer to my puzzle! I gotta head back and write it down before I forget!" Izuku then slipped on his damp red sneakers in a hurry, and started to hop away one foot at a time. "It shouldn't take too long, head there first without me! I'll see you later!"

"Again?! You better not be late this time! I'm fucking starving!"

* * *

 **As of 27th October 2019, chapters 1 to 12 have been rewritten.**

 **Feel free to leave a review. Thanks for reading!**


	4. Chapter 4: Encounter

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from My Hero Academia, nor do I own concepts of any other anime, manga or TV shows used in this story.

Author's note: This story is simply written for fun, I expect I would make plenty of amateur mistakes.

 **Texts like this** are Izuku's voluntary thoughts from his perspective.

 _ **[Texts like this]**_ represents thoughts that comes from his subconscious, where the majority of his quirk manifests. All of Izuku's subconscious thoughts are not actually verbal. To Izuku, they're merely flashes of notions that happen in very short moments. After all, they come from his intuition.

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Encounter**

 _12:50pm_

 **Crap! I forgot about the time again!**

 **Dammit, I hope Kacchan is already there to make my order for me…**

Izuku was running at a jog towards town to be on time for the Special Lunchtime offer of his favourite ramen stall in an alley at Tatooin Shopping District. Aside from the fact that their food was delicious, it was one of those obscure places where few people knew about which Izuku preferred.

The route Izuku used was a shortcut he used to go to school. The reason he made sure he could get to school in the shortest amount of time possible was just so he could get more sleep. Currently, he was making his way under an overhead bridge that extended over the sewage system when he saw something out of the corner of his eye.

 _ **[Alert: Anomaly detected]**_

Izuku slowed down for just a bit to glance at the sewer entrance right beside him as a viscous dark brown sludge oozed out through the sewer cap.

 **Huh? What's that? That doesn't look normal…**

 _ **[Analyzing target…]**_

 **That's a person?!**

Just as the thought registered in Izuku's mind, a giant monstrous face appeared from the sludge and it muttered: "A medium-sized body…. to hide in…"

 _ **[WARNING: Threat detected]**_

 **Shit! I need to back awa-**

With unexpected speed, the sludge lashed out to envelop Izuku's torso before he could react, then it started to force its way into Izuku's mouth and nose. "Don't worry... I'm just hijacking your body. Calm down. It'll only hurt for about 45 seconds and it'll all be over..." muttered a grotesque face that materialized from the sludge.

 **It's trying to suffocate me!**

 _ **[Regulating heart rate...; Redirecting blood flow to operating system...]**_

Izuku tried to remove the sludge clogging up his face but to no avail, as his fingers simply sunk in and slipped through the goo. "No point in trying that. I'm fluid, you see!" boasted the attacker.

 _ **[Analyzing target physiology…; Mutation quirk detected]**_

 _ **[Quirk data acquisition complete]**_

 _ **[Analyzing optimal course of action…]**_

 _ **[Assessment: Apply direct force repulsion, target rigid organs]**_

 _ **[Activating quirk: Puppet String]**_

Izuku immediately pulled out the chunk of sludge that smothered his face with Puppet String and took a big gulp of air.

 _ **[Analyzing target anatomy…]**_

 **Think I can't fight back by keeping me turned around?!**

 _ **[Activating quirk: Air Cannon]**_

As soon as he managed to recover his breath, Izuku raised his arm and fired an Air Cannon shot above him without even looking. Air spiraled around his forearm and violently ejected through his palm, directly into one of the sludge villain's unsightly eyeballs.

"AAARGH! How did you-" exclaimed the villain as the sharp pain blinded it, and it released Izuku from the momentary surprise.

 **It's stunned! Now's my chance!**

 _ **[Initializing combat protocols...]**_

Izuku retreated a few steps away, then proceeded to barrage the villain's exposed eyes with multiple precise Air Cannon shots, each impact causing the villain to scream in agony. Every time the sludge tried to move towards Izuku, it was met with instant retaliation, and yet the villain has no intention of surrendering.

 **This thing doesn't give up! And I can't keep him away forever!**

 **Fire Breath isn't going to do much against that slime, looks like I'm gonna have to-**

"Fear not kid! I AM HERE!" said a familiar voice from the manhole the villain just came from, as a bulky muscular figure climbed out of it carrying a grocery bag with two bottles of soda.

 **Huh? Is that…? HOLY SHIT ITS ALL MIGHT!**

The sight of the world famous number one hero caught Izuku off guard, which made him briefly forget that he was trying to hold back a villain, and he just stood there frozen in awe. The sludge villain noticed the opportunity and attempted a mad dash towards the green haired boy.

With blinding speed, All Might rushed in to intercept the villain, and vigorously swung a hefty punch while yelling: "Texaaaas… SMAAASH!"

Izuku watched as All Might's punch created a shockwave so powerful it splattered the villain apart.

 _ **[Analyzing force distribution…]**_

 **Holy shit! Watching his strength up close in action is no joke! That blow would've vaporized all that sludge had it actually landed. He managed to make a shockwave just strong enough to knock it out, then splatter it nearby and not all over the street? That means he's got such a precise control over his super strength that he can fine tune his shockwaves! Wait, that means all my analysis on All Might's long range attacks were wrong! He could potentially-**

"Hey! Hey! Young man! Are you alright?" said All Might as he waved his hand in front of Izuku's face.

"Ohmygodohmygod," muttered Izuku as he was snapped out of his stupor.

"You're okay! Excellent! Apologies for getting you caught up in my villain hunt. Mistakes like that aren't my style, but… This is a strange land to me! And besides, I'm off camera! Haha!" All Might chuckled splendidly as he explained in a heroic pose.

"But my success here is all thanks to you! Now I simply have to figure out how to scrape up this mess…" All Might continued as he emptied his two soda bottles into a drain, to which Izuku immediately replied with: "Oh, uhm, let me help you! It's the least I can do to return the favor!"

"Your offer is greatly appreciated, young man! However it is best if you stayed back, this evildoer could wake up at any moment, and I've put you through enough trouble!" declined All Might.

"No, no, I can actually make it a lot faster for you. Here, I'll show you!" Izuku hurriedly took both empty bottles from All Might. He then held the bottles by their bottoms, upside down on his palms, and used Puppet String to suck the sludge remains into the bottles like a vacuum cleaner. "There! All done! I just want to say it's a great honor to meet you, All Might. Thank you for saving me!"

"You're welcome, young man! That was impressive! How inventive of you to use your quirk like that!" All Might then tucked the two bottles filled with the unconscious villain into his side pockets. "Now then, I must bring this fellow to the authorities! You can catch me again on TV!"

 ** _[Analyzing target...; Functional error detected]_**

 **Hmm? The bottles look like they could fall out at any moment, the pockets don't really fit.**

 **Should I tell him? Probably not, I don't want to look like a nitpicker in front of him. I'm sure he knows what he's doing, he's All Might after all!**

"Until next time! Thanks for your support!" announced All Might with a salute as he leaped away in a mighty bound.

 **Wow, I can't believe it! I just met All Might in person! Wait till Kacchan hears about this!**

 **No, wait! I forgot to shake his hand! I could've found out how powerful his quirk is! DAMMIT!**

* * *

 _1:20pm_

 **Crap crap crap! I got held up by that accident longer than I thought...**

 **Kacchan better not eat up all of my fried shrimps like last time...**

Izuku jogged towards the town area where Tatooin Shopping District was, when he heard a growing commotion as he went closer.

 **What's up with that huge crowd at the entrance? Some kind of event?**

 **Wait, I'm hearing explosions. Gas leak? And there's Mt. Lady's head poking over the roof on the other side of the street!**

As Izuku pushed his way through the crowd, many pro heroes could be seen evacuating the civilians and keeping them away from the area.

 **I can see Kamui Woods, Backdraft, Death Arms and a few other pros…**

 **Whoa, that's a LOT of fire…**

The entire street was filled with panicked cries from the crowd and the heroes' relays of information mixed in the chaos. "I've got my hands full! Where are the firefighters?!" "How's it looking over there?!" "Go get him, heroes!" "Wow! Some sort of hardcore villain?!"

"Someone'll come!" "Until then, we need that kid to hold on just a bit longer!" yelled the heroes closest to the source of the commotion.

Izuku pushed his way through the crowd to get a better view. At this point, Kamui Woods had just finished evacuating people from the fires, and was keeping civilians away by using his Lumber quirk to form a makeshift barricade.

 _ **[Scanning for Subject Kacchan…]**_

 **I don't see him anywhere…**

 **I hope he made it out in time, this looks really bad…**

 **What the- Isn't that the sludge guy from before…?!**

 **Oh no… I should've warned All Might! This is my fault!**

At the center of chaos was the sludge monster Izuku just previously encountered, currently enveloping a teenager with its viscous form.

 _ **[Assessing situation…]**_

 **Death Arms is nowhere near as strong enough as All Might's punch, Mt. Lady can't fit in here with her quirk, Backdraft is too busy putting out the fires, Kamui Woods himself is vulnerable to fire…**

 **And the quirks I can use won't do much against that thing, at least not without harming the hostage…**

 **Plus, I don't have enough experience to know what to do here, I'd probably just cause more trouble for the pros…**

 **I can't imagine how terrible it must feel suffocating inside that thing, I hope a hero with a suitable quirk shows up soon…**

 **Hang in there… I'm so sorry** **…**

 **Wait, there's a smell of burnt sugar** **…** **Isn't that-**

Right before Izuku could finish the thought, the villain turned around just enough for Izuku to see the victim's face.

 _ **[Subject Kacchan found]**_

* * *

With zero hesitation, Midoriya Izuku vaulted over Kamui Wood's makeshift fence and sprinted towards the chaos.

 _ **[Analyzing target physiology…]**_

 _ **[Transformation quirk detected; Assimilating…]**_

 _ **[Quirk: Lumber; Assimilation complete]**_

"HEY! GET BACK HERE YOU FOOL! STOP!" screamed the hero Death Arms as Izuku ran towards the rampaging villain.

"KACCHAN, I'M HERE!" Izuku yelled at the top of his lungs as he continued to close the distance. "Stay calm! Take a deep breath on my mark!"

 _ **[Activating quirk: Puppet String]**_

Izuku reached out and pulled away a chunk of slime that was stifling Bakugou's face. "NOW!"

Bakugou immediately took a deep gulp of air that returned some color to his face. "Deku! Get away you idio-" His words were cut off as the sludge attempted to engulf him again.

 **That only bought Kacchan a few more seconds! Now think Izuku think!**

"It's that kid again! You're dead!" declared the sludge villain as it started to slither towards Izuku.

 **Art of War, page 24! "Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected"!**

 _ **[Analyzing optimal course of action…]**_

"Don't panic!" Izuku gave his best friend a knowing grin. The expression seemed to calm down Bakugou, as he knew all too well what it meant.

 _Trust me,_ _I have a plan!_

"Now release your biggest smokescreen!"

Bakugou nodded and used his quirk to emit as much smoke as he could, by continuously firing his Explosion quirk through his palms while keeping his fists clenched, and causing incomplete combustions just like how Izuku taught him so many years ago.

The majority of the street was immediately flooded with a thick black smoke that reeked of burnt caramel. "What's going on?! I can't see!" shrieked the sludge villain.

"Get the civilians away from here! That kid's quirk is going berserk! He can't hold out much longer!" yelled one of the heroes.

 _ **[Initializing combat protocols...]**_

 _ **[Activating quirk: Infrared Vision]**_

Izuku's entire vision morphed into a world of pure temperature and raw substance, stripped of all colors on the visible spectrum of the human eye. Through the pitch black smoke, he could now see Bakugou's distinguishing compact humanoid shape, surrounded by a cooler hue of the villain's fluid form, with its two eyeballs above slightly warmer than its slime-like body, and the surrounding fires form intangible pockets of searing hot danger zones.

 _ **[Activating quirk: Lumber]**_

From it's obscured vision, the villain saw a large dark-green tree branch appear out of the smog to wrap around it's victim, as two smaller branches stemmed outwards from it and jabbed both the villain's eyes.

"What the-AARGH! My eyes again?! What's happening?!" screamed the villain, as the pain and confusion made it lose it's grip on Bakugou. "GET BACK HERE!"

 **Ugh, this quirk feels weird! It's like having dozens of fingers on my arm!**

 **Now to pull Kacchan away and retreat!**

Right as Izuku was about to plan his next step, he saw a familiar silhouette of a muscular humanoid approach them through his Infrared Vision.

 **Is that All Might?! We're saved!**

All Might's huge bulk dispersed the smoke around him by sheer proximity. As he approached, he saw the sludge villain thrashing around in pain with its eyes closed, and two teenage boys just standing beside it. The scene caught him by surprise when he noticed dark-green tree branches withdrawing into one of the boy's arm.

"Young man! Weren't you-?!" All Might uttered in astonishment, but his words were interrupted by the villain's desperate cry. "DIE! All Might!"

"Detroit… SMAAASH!" All Might retaliated with a mighty punch, causing a massive shockwave that cleared all the smoke and fire from the street, then erupted into a powerful updraft that instantly made the surrounding area rain.

The chaos slowly subsided, and the crowd burst into cheers and whistles. "He changed the weather with a single punch!" "Amazing! That's All Might!" praised the spectators.

All Might stood there in a heroic pose, while he smiled and waved for the crowd and cameras, but Izuku noticed that All Might had a look of unease when he made eye contact with him.

 **What was that about?**

* * *

"Holy shit, Deku! You crazy motherfucker! I almost didn't believe you when you said to make that smokescreen! That was insane!" Bakugou recalled the incident with excitement as the two walked back home together.

"Yeah… I didn't think of a plan until I rushed in. Sorry…" Izuku said apologetically as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Don't be sorry you fuckin' idiot! You just saved my ass with that brain of yours!" retorted Bakugou as he jokingly punched Izuku in the arm. "Fuck it. Y'know what, Deku? This whole week, we can go for as much ramen as you want, everything's on me!"

The offer brought a smile to Izuku's face. "Deal! But you better not steal my shrimps if I'm late again!"

"Then _don't_ be late you fucking nerd! I'll take all your fuckin' pork chops too if you don't come on time!" yelled the spiky blonde as they approached the Bakugou household.

"Damn, what are the fuckin' odds that we _both_ got saved by All Might in a day?" Bakugou shook his head in disbelief as he opened the front door. "I'll see ya tomorrow at school then Deku!"

Izuku continued down the street and was about to turn a corner, when he was surprised by All Might who slid into a dramatic pose in front of him. "I AM HERE!"

"GAH! All Might?! What are you doing here?!" yelped Izuku. "I thought you were surrounded by reporters back there…"

"Shaking them off is nothing to me! After all, I'm All Might! Hahaha!" All Might boasted proudly, puffing out his chest.

"Uhm… is this about the incident back there? I know I shouldn't have-" Izuku muttered self-consciously as All Might put up a hand to interrupt him.

"In a way, yes! But I'm not here to lecture you about your reckless actions!" All Might said as he gradually put on a serious expression. It made Izuku gape in shock as he had never seen All Might drop that famous smile of his ever, and that's saying a lot for an avid All Might fan like Izuku.

"Kid. You and I need to have a talk."

* * *

 **As of 27th October 2019, chapters 1 to 12 have been rewritten.**

 **Feel free to leave a review. Thanks for reading!**


	5. Chapter 5: Information

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from My Hero Academia, nor do I own concepts of any other anime, manga or TV shows used in this story.

Author's note: This story is simply written for fun, I expect I would make plenty of amateur mistakes.

 **Texts like this** are Izuku's voluntary thoughts from his perspective.

 _ **[Texts like this]**_ represents thoughts that comes from his subconscious, where the majority of his quirk manifests. All of Izuku's subconscious thoughts are not actually verbal. To Izuku, they're merely flashes of notions that happen in very short moments. After all, they come from his intuition.

* * *

 **Chapter 5: Information**

"Wha-? What do you mean, All Might?! Did I do something wrong?!" Izuku stammered confusedly, as he started to break out in a cold sweat.

"No, no no! Not at all young man! However, I have some questions I was hoping you could answer about your quirk," explained All Might with a reassuring smile, though still with a cautious look in his eyes.

"Oh, uhm, okay! But I'd rather not talk about it on the street, I'd rather people know less about my quirk, it-it's just a personal reason of mine. I don't suppose you would mind talking somewhere private? I live with my mom, my house is just around the corner. Oh, my name is Midoriya Izuku by the way!" Izuku replied anxiously.

"All right then! Lead the way young Midoriya!" All Might said as his iconic smile returned, though there seemed to be a hint of growing concern on his expression.

On his way home, Izuku hurriedly took out his phone to make a call as his hands trembled from excitement. "Hello, Mom? Mom! Don't panic! Listen very carefully!" "What?! No! I'm not panicking!" "Look, just get ready for a guest because someone very important is coming to our house right now!" "What? You're not going to believe me even if I told you who he is!" "Just get ready!" "Okay, fine, fine, it's All Might!" "See, I told you you won't believe me! Mom, just trust me!"

* * *

 _Midoriya household_

"Mom, I'm home! All Might is here with me!" Izuku announced as he took off his shoes and entered his home, greeting his mother who came to the front door.

"Izuku sweetie, I know it's a good thing that you're making new friends, but don't you think it's a bit ridiculous to say- _IT'S ALL MIGHT_!" Midoriya Inko screamed mid-sentence when the the hero's huge muscular figure walked through the front door. "D-did you get into trouble Izuku?!"

"Oh, my! I apologize if I scared you Mrs. Midoriya! Fear not, your son is perfectly fine! I am simply here to have a chat with him about his quirk, that's all! Thank you for having me here!" said the number one hero as he bowed respectfully.

Inko barely recovered from her shock and hurriedly returned the bow with a bright smile. "No, no! Thank _you_ for coming! M-my son has always been a huge fan of yours! It's an honour that you're here! Oh my, I'll go get some tea!"

Both hero and fan took their seats in the living room around the dinner table, as Inko brought them a tray with two cups of tea. "Izuku, I have to go buy some groceries right now, so make sure you treat our guest properly, alright?" said Inko as she exited the house after bowing politely to All Might.

"Okay, stay safe, Mom!" Izuku said as he turned to All Might. "So… what's this about my quirk?"

* * *

"Ah, I see. I understand now! I knew you were something else when I saw you jump in selflessly to save your friend! You have the means to become an amazing hero one day! Unfortunately I have to go now! Duty calls!" All Might said in a hurry, then his breathing seemed to become strained as he quickly scrambled up from his seat.

"Wait, All Might, you said you saw me? That means you were already there, then why didn't you save Kacchan but waited until I rushed in?" Izuku asked, the confusion on his expression became increasingly apparent as the realization set in.

"Well… I was… Uh… I have to go now!" All Might started to break into a nervous sweat as he headed for the front door in a hurry, but then he stopped himself in the corridor and began to shudder in pain, his face wrought with indecision. "Shit! In my… hurry, my mouth slipped! I can't leave... like this… after making you think like that! But I'm… running out of time… "

To Izuku's horror, All Might clutched his stomach and hunched over, as steam slowly rose from his entire body. In an instant, All Might shrunk into an anorexic lanky man with barely any meat in his muscles.

Izuku's jaw dropped in surprise and his eyes almost popped out at the sight. "WHAAAAAAAAAT?!"

"You've shriveled up! Wa-was tea your weakness or something?! Oh my god I'm so sorry!" Izuku screamed hysterically.

"I'm fine, kid. It wasn't your tea." said the slender blonde man as he drooled a mouthful of blood. "You're seeing the real me, but don't tell anyone about it, alright?"

All Might, now this deformed sickly man, lifted up his shirt to reveal his stomach, upon it was a massive web of grotesque scars spanning across the entire left side of his torso. "You see this? An enemy did this to me five years ago. Nowadays I can only do hero work for about 3 hours a day."

 _ **[Analyzing target...; Anomaly detected]**_

 _ **[Analyzing trauma…]**_

 **He only has one lung left?! And his stomach's gone too?! There's so much scarring on his organs that it's a miracle he isn't on life support!**

 **What the hell could've caused this?!**

 _ **[Updating new data, cross referencing…]**_

"So… correct me if I'm wrong, I'm guessing you already reached your limit today when that incident happened, that's why you couldn't save Kacchan first, but the urgency of seeing two teenagers in danger forced you into action to push past your limits. But then, why did you force yourself this far for something as trivial as asking me about my quirk? Unless…" Izuku droned on with a glassy stare, as All Might watched with a mixture of awe and horror, like he's helplessly watching a car tumble down a hill uncontrollably.

"You were genuinely concerned about how my quirk works, mainly because of what you saw of it, which is my ability to use someone else's quirk. I have made some serious considerations about a copycat quirk because of my own, and its hero work potential is very high, combat ability included, even more so especially if they can permanently copy another quirk. And for someone as strong as you to be wounded into this state, it had to be someone or something incredibly powerful…"

 _ **[Analysis complete: Possible scenario generated]**_

"Supposedly, if I wanted to cause enough damage to break through something extremely tough, I'd have used a multitude of quirks that could build upon each other for maximum effect. That person who wounded you, they can copy quirks too, don't they? That's why you needed to find out the truth about my quirk,"

"Because you suspected I might be related to that person. And for you to still be this concerned after five years, this means that person is a greater threat than I can ever imagine. Not to mention I have never seen any information about this anywhere, likely because it was covered up, because you want to keep the idea of the Symbol of Peace alive and avoid public panic." Izuku then finished his muttering and blankly stared at All Might, waiting for a reply.

All Might could only stare in shock at Izuku's inference. "Holy shit, young man… You got all that from this wound?"

"Well, not just from that wound, there's a few other observations too, but yes. It's a logical possibility." Izuku stated bluntly.

"You were screaming in panic just a second ago, and now you're awfully calm about this... Is this part of your quirk too?" All Might asked as a drop of sweat slid down his neck.

"Oh, sorry, yeah. I adjust to new information much faster than most people because of my quirk. You probably think this is quite disturbing." Izuku nodded and rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.

"Not at all, young Midoriya! Adapting quickly to new situations is an important skill for a hero! In fact, it's quite impressive that you managed to figure out so much." All Might sat down at the table again with a sigh. "However, now that you know so much, I suppose there's no harm in explaining everything to you..."

All Might proceeded to explain the origin of One For All and All For One's power, and his battle with his nemesis five years ago. Izuku could only listen in silence and digest this new reality.

* * *

"That's about as much as I'm willing to let you know, young Midoriya. I'm sure you understand why this must be kept discrete, seeing how you try to keep a low profile on your quirk yourself." All Might said as he rose from his seat.

"Now that I've made sure you're not related to All For One, I'm afraid I have to take my leave."

Before All Might stepped out the door, he turned to Izuku and offered a handshake, which Izuku gladly accepted. "Now then, until we meet again, young Midoriya. Good luck with the entrance exam."

 _ **[Analyzing target...]**_

 _ **[Emitter quirks detected...; Assimilating...]**_

 **Huh, I always thought it'd be a mutation quirk, although for it to be able to be transferred to another, emitter does make more sense...**

 _ **[Anomalies detected: 7]**_

 **Wait, what..? Are these the-**

"Hey, young man? Are you alright?!"

Through Izuku's mind's eye, he saw seven unknown entities turn their eyes towards him. They radiated an odd sense of curiosity towards his presence, along with a growing sense of fascination directed at him, then his attention was drawn to one of the mysterious beings.

 _ **[Incoming external signal detected; Interpreting...]**_

"Uh... All Might?! I think I'm seeing ghosts or something? But they're not scary at all, more like... warm and comforting? I think one of them is trying to tell me something..."

All Might almost choked on his own blood at Izuku's words. "WHAT?! GHOSTS?!"

"She- I think it feels like a _she_? She's saying: I'm glad you still have that smile after all these years, I'm proud of you, Toshinori...? Who's Toshinori?" The sheer emotion of pride and joy Izuku felt through the connection made tears stream down his face unconsciously.

"Th-that's me! D-did she say anything else?!" All Might stuttered anxiously as he spattered more blood from his mouth and tightened his grip on Izuku's hand.

Izuku wiped his tears and said: "No... that vision is gone now. It felt like a one-way connection, they all faded into the background afterwards. Sorry, I didn't think my quirk was capable of doing that... Was that part of One For All?"

"I've felt something similar in my younger days, but I never thought someone outside of the lineage would be able to experience that..." All Might said with genuine awe as he slowly let go of Izuku's hand, visibly holding back tears.

"Thank you, young Midoriya... For what it's worth, I'm glad that we met today." Toshinori gave Izuku a hug and walked away, with a smile.

With renewed determination, Izuku waved goodbye to his hero and idol: All Might, the Symbol of Peace.

 **Thank you, All Might, for staying strong all this time.**

 _ **[Quirks: Power Stockpile, Inheritance; Assimilation complete]**_

* * *

 **So I did say Izuku wasn't going to inherit One For All, but I didn't say he wasn't getting the stockpile and passing-down ability.** **Since he is the first of his independent lineage, he won't have access to the massive power reserves of the original One For All.** **On the next chapter: U.A. entrance exam!**

 **As of 27th October 2019, chapters 1 to 12 have been rewritten.**

 **Feel free to leave a review. Thanks for reading!**


	6. Chapter 6: Entry

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from My Hero Academia, nor do I own concepts of any other anime, manga or TV shows used in this story.

Author's note: This story is simply written for fun, I expect I would make plenty of amateur mistakes.

 **Texts like this** are Izuku's voluntary thoughts from his perspective.

 ** _[Texts like this]_** represents thoughts that comes from his subconscious, where the majority of his quirk manifests. All of Izuku's subconscious thoughts are not actually verbal. To Izuku, they're merely flashes of notions that happen in very short moments. After all, they come from his intuition.

* * *

 **Chapter 6: Entry**

 _10 months later_

"Yo, Deku! What the fuck?! You're actually on time for once?!" Bakugou greeted Izuku with a fistbump at the entrance to the esteemed U.A. High School.

"Morning, Kacchan. Ugh, I'd sleep longer if I could, but I'm pretty sure U.A. doesn't take too kindly to slackers… Haaaa-GAH!" Izuku was in the middle of a big yawn when Bakugou tripped his legs the moment his eyes were closed.

Izuku expected to make contact with the ground to push himself up as usual, but the sensation did not come as he remained in the same position mid-fall. "Eh?!"

"Are you okay? Sorry I used my quirk on you without asking first…" said a girl with shoulder-length fluffy brown hair beside Izuku, then she adjusted him back to a standing position as if he weighed nothing. "Hey! That wasn't very nice… Why'd you trip him on purpose? Don't you know it's a bad omen for someone to trip and fall?"

"It's okay! He's my best friend, we do it to each other all the time. It was part of my idea to sharpen our awareness..." Izuku straightened his uniform as he explained for Bakugou.

"Except this fuckin' idiot still falls for that same trip every damn time." Bakugou added with a mischievous grin, which earned a disapproving stare from Izuku.

"Oh, I see! Wow, you two don't even look nervous at all, you must've prepared a lot for today…" The girl said with awe as she waved the two goodbye and went ahead. "Good luck to both of you!"

"What do you think her quirk was, Deku? That looked pretty weird." Bakugou asked out loud as the duo walked towards the main briefing auditorium.

"No idea, there wasn't a chance to shake her hand, but it looked like it could be really useful though."

* * *

 _30 minutes later_

A large crowd of examinees were gathered at the entrance to U.A.'s Practical Exam Site B, a massive mock cityscape. Izuku was there in his most flexible sportswear, a set of green tracksuit with white stripes, with his favourite pair of red sneakers. He was looking around the crowd while waiting for the exam's start signal.

 **Looks like they assigned kids from the same school to different locations…**

 **But I'm sure Kacchan will do just fine.**

 **Oh hey! There's that girl with the fluffy hair!**

 **I'll go try and talk to her, maybe I can get a handshake this time.**

Just as Izuku was going to walk up to the girl, a stiff grip on his shoulder stopped him. He turned around to see a boy wearing glasses with neatly combed dark blue hair, who started talking in a blunt fashion: "That girl seems to be doing some kind of meditation. Are you trying to interfere?"

 **It's that stuck-up guy from the briefing room. What's his problem?**

 **Oh? Are those… exhaust pipes on his calves?**

"I'm gonna go talk to her to help her calm her nerves, you got a problem with that?" Izuku stated boldly as he politely removed the teen's hand from his shoulder.

 _ **[Analyzing target physiology…]**_

 _ **[Mutation quirk detected; Physical inspection required]**_

 **Dang, it's not a transformation quirk. Oh, well.**

"I see, my apologies. I wanted to make sure you were not going to sabotage her chances." said the glasses-wearing teen as Izuku walked towards the fluffy-haired girl.

 _ **[Analyzing target…]**_

 **Hmm, her heart rate's pretty high, stress levels too.**

"Hey, didn't think I'd see you here!" Izuku said as he approached her.

"Oh hi! You're the one from the entrance! You're Deku-kun, right?"

 **Oh, she must've heard Kacchan call me that.**

"My name's actually Midoriya Izuku, but you can call me Deku!" Izuku extended a hand as he introduced himself.

"I'm Uraraka Ochako! Pleased to meet you!" Uraraka returned the handshake with a bright bubbly smile.

 _ **[Analyzing target physiology…]**_

 **Her stress levels are going down, that's good.**

 **But why is her heart rate going faster? Weird.**

 **Eh, I tried.**

 _ **[Emitter quirk detected…; Assimilating…]**_

 _ **[Quirk: Zero Gravity, Assimilation complete]**_

 **Holy shit! Her quirk is so cool!**

 **Now I can float around my room like an astronaut in space!**

 **Wait, no, stop. Focus on the exam for now.**

* * *

Moments after their conversation ended, a loud announcement can be heard from the school's watchtower. "AND... BEGIN!"

 _ **[Initializing combat protocols...]**_

Izuku proceeded to run at a full sprint into the exam site. The other examinees were still baffled and waited for a countdown.

"WHAT'S WRONG? THE TEST'S STARTED! RUN! RUN!"

The sound of a massive stampede soon followed as the crowd of teenagers started to rush into the mock city.

 **Okay, now to look for those robots.**

 **There are three models, if I can find one of each, I'll know how they work.**

Right as Izuku finished the thought, he ran around a street corner to find a 1-pointer robot charging towards him.

 **AHA! There's one!**

 _ **[Analyzing target…;**_ _ **Multiple structural weakness found]**_

 _ **[Activating quirk: Puppet String]**_

Izuku reached out with Puppet String towards the camera in the robot's eye socket, and yanked it out with ease. With its vision disabled, the robot charged in a straight path with no clue of its surroundings.

 **Easy peasy. Now for it to run into a wall and crash itself apart.**

A shiny laser beam came from the far side of the street and tore through the midsection of the robot, instantly making it explode. Izuku turned to its source, a blonde slender boy with long eyelashes was there, wearing a belt that glowed with the same color as the laser. "Merci! Appreciate the assist!"

 **Dammit, that was my kill!**

With time against him, Izuku ignored the blonde and ran to another street where the least amount of people went. Just as he entered the opening, two 3-pointers turned their visors towards Izuku and fired their missiles at him.

 **Bring it!**

 _ **[Analyzing target trajectories…]**_

Izuku made a simple dodge roll that made both missiles miss. He then ducked behind one of the 3-pointers, and pulled off its back panel to look at its machinery.

 _ **[Analyzing target mechanism…]**_

 **This one has a manual override system?!**

 **Oh this is gonna be fun…**

 **If I rip out these wires and connect them like this…**

* * *

In a spectator room somewhere, the teachers of U.A., the judges for the examination, noticed a very peculiar examinee in Exam Site B. A boy wearing a green tracksuit was riding a 3-pointer robot and controlled it like a vehicle. He cruised through the streets at high speed, firing drive-by missiles at any other robots along his way, rarely missing a shot.

The Principal of U.A., Nezu, perked up in excitement when he saw the examinee. "Oh my! I like that one! There's more to him than meets the eye! I see what he did there! Will we finally have a student who can match my intellect?!"

The judges' room was momentarily filled with Principal Nezu's disturbing sinister cackle as the other teachers continued to observe the examination with a slight annoyance.

* * *

Izuku continued to breeze through the city to look for more robots, but eventually slowed to a halt when he realized his ride had run out of ammunition, so he simply ripped out the entire control panel and hopped away from it before it exploded.

 **And that's 42 points! Pretty good! I barely broke a sweat!**

 **Could've been higher, but there were a few people who needed help...**

 **Hmm… I think there's about a minute left?**

 **Should be able to get a couple more bots.**

 _ **[Scanning for targets…]**_

 **Looks like most of the bots have been cleared out, I only see mostly participants on this street** **…**

 **OH SHI-**

Izuku had only just managed to turn around, as a massive 8-storey tall robot demolished the side of a building nearby. The colossus was rigged to go berserk whenever too many examinees clustered together in one area, and there was absolutely no reward in destroying it, thus retreating from it was a no-brainer. Its appearance immediately caused a massive panic that resulted in most of the examinees fleeing from it.

 **You gotta be kidding me, that thing's gigantic!**

 _ **[Plotting optimal escape rou-**_

"Oww…!"

Just beneath the dust cloud kicked up by the massive robot's tracks, a familiar figure could be seen pinned under some rubble.

Uraraka Ochako was right in the gargantuan's path and unable to move.

 **She's in trouble!**

 _ **[Operator directive: Secure Subject Ochako]**_

 **Dammit! That dust cloud just covered everything!**

 _ **[Activating quirk: Infrared Vision]**_

 _ **[Assessing situation…]**_

 **She's too far for me to reach!**

 **And its armor near the bottom is too thick!**

 **Screw it! I have to take this thing out! No point holding back now!**

 _ **[Initializing advanced combat protocols**_ _ **…**_ _ **]**_

 _ **[All quirks ready to deploy]**_

 **I have to find a better angle!**

Izuku clapped his palms together to make himself weightless with Zero Gravity, and jumped off the ground as hard as he could.

 **Oh gods this new quirk is making me feel sick!**

 **Not now! Hold it in!**

At this point, Izuku had just floated to three-quarters of the colossus' height, the green tinge on his expression almost matching his hair and tracksuit.

 _ **[Analyzing target…]**_

 _ **[Multiple structural weakness found]**_

 _ **[Target assessment: Destroy critical points]**_

 **Most of the joints are exposed…**

 **I can bring it down with a few well-placed shots!**

 **But first I have to secure myself in the air so the recoil doesn't blast me away…**

 _ **[Analyzing local topography…]**_

 **Aha! I'll make a spider web!**

Izuku stretched out both arms to his sides and used Lumber to create a network of dark-green tree branches that rapidly expanded and latched onto the nearby buildings, tearing apart both his sleeves in the process. In the middle of the growth is a circular platform just wide enough for him to stand securely. As he finished the structure, he clapped his palms again to release his Zero Gravity effect and landed on the foothold.

 **Okay, now to make sure it falls backwards!**

 _ **[Analyzing target priority…]**_

 _ **[Simulating possible collapse trajectory…]**_

 _ **[Synchronizing data…]**_

Compressed air swirled from Izuku's forearm into spheres on each of his palms, then droplets of nitroglycerin from his hands accumulated into a bead in the centre of each sphere. With this technique, he could shoot controlled detonations at varying distances by combining both quirks in very specific amounts, a feat impossible without his own quirk. He dubbed the technique:

 **Flak Cannon!**

From the ground, the examinees could see streaks of distorted air being fired towards the giant robot from the large nest of tree branches that just appeared, and then some of its exposed machinery were blown apart by fiery explosions.

 **And for the final blast…**

 _ **[Infusing Stockpile energy]**_

The colossus was knocked around by the barrage and wobbled left and right, then a much bigger explosion that crackled with green arcs of electricity caved in its faceplate, causing it to topple backwards as its insides exploded from system failure. Izuku remained on his perch for a few moments to catch his breath, sweating profusely as if he just finished a workout.

 **There goes all that extra ramen…**

 **Damn, doing all that at once really wore me out…**

 **And now to get down from here…**

Izuku stepped off his makeshift platform into a free fall. Halfway down, he clapped his hands together to make himself weightless once more, then someone suddenly slapped him in mid-air.

"Huh?!" Uraraka squeaked. She tried to help Izuku slow his fall, but then realized he was already weightless because she didn't feel her quirk take effect.

They floated slowly towards the ground and released their Zero Gravity quirks. "How did yo-" Uraraka barely managed to form a sentence when they both abruptly hunched over and threw up at the same time.

"TIMES… UP!" Present Mic's voice echoed across the exam grounds.

* * *

Izuku wiped away the vomit from his mouth and looked around. All the other examinees including Uraraka were staring at him with a variety of confusion, awe and envy. "Holy crap, did you see what that guy did?!" "I saw him riding a 3-pointer around, I thought his quirk controls robots or something." "Is that a Copy quirk?! Whoa, that's so rare."

A short elderly woman wearing a doctor's coat appeared among the crowd, U.A.'s school nurse, Recovery Girl. She walked around the examinees distributing candy-bears and giving out words of encouragement. "Good job, everyone! C'mere if you got any injuries! Anyone hurt? Here, sonny, have some candy."

Recovery Girl approached Izuku and examined him. "Oh my, sonny. That's quite a scrape on your arm there. Here, give me your hand."

 **Oh, I didn't even notice that, must've happened while I was messing with that control panel.**

The school nurse put her lips onto Izuku's injured hand, which made him freeze in surprise at the gesture. Izuku watched as the wound healed up rapidly before his very eyes.

 **Wow! Is this her quirk?!**

 _ **[Analyzing target physiology…]**_

 _ **[Emitter quirk detected; Assimilating…]**_

 _ **[Quirk: Heal; Assimilation complete]**_

"Alright, kiddos! Exam's over! Travel home safe!"

* * *

 _A week later_

The secret ramen stall in Tatooin Shopping District had a new customer that day. She had just arrived to sit beside one of the stall's two most loyal regulars. On the phone, Uraraka had agreed to meet Izuku and his friend here to celebrate their acceptance into U.A.

"Wow, I never realized there's a stall here!" Uraraka greeted Bakugou. "Hi, sorry I'm late! It took me a while to find this place. You must be Kacchan, right?"

"It's Bakugou to you, Fluffy Hair. Just order something, that idiot will be here any second now, he's always late." Bakugou replied without looking as he slurped his noodles. Beside him on the table were two bowls of ramen with an assortment of toppings including deep-fried shrimps, seemingly just left to cool.

"Oh, okay!" Uraraka turned to the stall owner to order something, then she noticed the bowls beside Bakugou that were left untouched. "Whoa, you sure eat a lot Bakugou-kun… But aren't you worried they're gonna turn soggy?"

"What, these? They're Deku's. He likes to eat his ramen like that, said he likes to taste the soup from the inside of the noodles or something. He's weird like that." Bakugou then grinned as if he just had an amusing thought. "Oh, feel free to take his shrimps, he doesn't really like them anyway."

"Really?! I love shrimps! Thanks!" Uraraka gasped with excitement at the offer, as she picked out all the shrimps into her bowl with chopsticks and ate them heartily.

Five minutes later, Bakugou was about to start on his second serving, when Izuku arrived and sat beside him at the table as usual. "Hey, Uraraka! Glad you're here! Congrats on getting accepted! Hey-"

"KACCHAN, YOU ATE ALL MY SHRIMPS AGAIN?!"

* * *

 **As of 27th October 2019, chapters 1 to 12 have been rewritten.**

 **Feel free to leave a review. Thanks for reading!**


	7. Chapter 7: Assessment

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from My Hero Academia, nor do I own concepts of any other anime, manga or TV shows used in this story.

Author's note: This story is simply written for fun, I expect I would make plenty of amateur mistakes.

 **Texts like this** are Izuku's voluntary thoughts from his perspective.

 _ **[Texts like this]**_ represents thoughts that comes from his subconscious, where the majority of his quirk manifests. All of Izuku's subconscious thoughts are not actually verbal. To Izuku, they're merely flashes of notions that happen in very short moments. After all, they come from his intuition.

* * *

 **Chapter 7: Assessment**

 _U.A. staff meeting room_

"Bakugou Katsuki, 80 villain points and 15 rescue points." One of U.A.'s teachers stated. "This one just kept picking up his pace when the others were slowing down, but he seemed quite reluctant when assisting other people."

"This Bakugou kid… he seemed like quite an aggressive and impulsive character, yet he was able to make rational decisions on the fly. He took advantage of the chaos caused by the giant gimmick to rack up points," said another teacher.

"Speaking of the gimmick… What about that one? Midoriya Izuku. That kid makes me wanna go _YEAH_!" Present Mic exclaimed.

"Hmm… let's see, he registered his quirk as _Attract Small Objects_. He only displayed that quirk once throughout the entire exam, and never used it again. We still don't know much about his actual quirk. And that stunt he pulled near the end? We've never had a student with those capabilities before, he could potentially cause a lot of problems. What should we do with him?" said a female voice as she flipped through some files.

"Regarding his use of so many quirks, I'm sure many of you are thinking of the same thing…" said Principal Nezu, which drew the full attention of everyone in the meeting.

"All Might, do you know anything about this boy? Do you think he could be related?" implied Principal Nezu.

"As a matter of fact, I do know about him and his quirk. However, I think it is best that you hear it from him in person. This young man has expressed his intentions to keep his quirk on a low profile. I would prefer to respect that. But rest assured he is no threat to everyone in U.A." replied All Might.

"Very well then, I will take your word for that. I shall have a discussion with him."

* * *

 _Early morning, first day of class, U.A. principal's office_

*KNOCK KNOCK*

"Yes, come in." Principal Nezu answered.

"Morning, Principal Nezu. I got an email from you saying you wanted to see me before class?" Izuku entered the office to see Nezu sitting on a couch by a table, and to his surprise, All Might in his skinny form. "Wait, All Might?! You're-"

"It's alright. Principal Nezu is a trusted associate of mine, he knows about my secret and All For One." Toshinori said as he took a sip of tea, which Izuku responded with a nod.

"Have a seat, young man." Nezu said as he poured another cup of tea for Izuku. "I found your performance in the entrance exam quite interesting, it seems your quirk is definitely not what you registered it as. For security reasons, I need to know about all of the student's quirks. But before I ask about it, I understood from All Might that you'd rather keep your actual quirk under the radar. May I know why?"

Izuku took a sip of tea and began his answer: "Well, it's my dad. When I found out I could learn other people's quirks indefinitely, he thought it could cause another uproar just like the first person who was born with a quirk. In his words, _a superpower in a world full of powers_ , that could've attracted a lot of unwanted attention. Turns out he was right, with what I heard from All Might, people like All For One who still might be out there. If news of my quirk reaches them, I could become a target,"

He then furrowed his brows as if trying to recall a memory. " _In making tactical dispositions, the highest pitch you can attain is to conceal them; conceal your dispositions_ …"

"… _And you will be safe from the prying of the subtlest spies, from the machinations of the wisest brains_." Nezu finished the sentence for him, earning an impressed smile from Izuku.

"Fortunately, all of the medical checkups I went to didn't manage to detect my actual quirk, so it's safe to say none of my doctors knew, but that also meant the current medical technology isn't good enough to know what my quirk actually does. So, my dad decided take it into his own hands to help me study it, since he was a quirk researcher to begin with. He knows that I can't hide my quirk forever, so I need to be prepared for it, that's one of the reasons why I came to U.A."

"Hmm?" Nezu stroked his chin in contemplation. "You said your father is helping you study your quirk, would it be fair for me to assume that both your parents don't have a full understanding of your quirk?"

"Yes. My quirk is very much an anomaly in my family tree. As far as I know, nobody in my family has ever had a quirk that even remotely resembles mine."

"Ah, a spontaneous mutation, very interesting. In that case, there's no need for me to press further about your reasons for hiding your quirk. Now then, would you mind explaining your quirk to me? You have my word that it will only be told to a select few of the staff who will be responsible for teaching your class."

"Hmm, since All Might can trust you, I don't see why I shouldn't. So what my quirk basically does is…"

* * *

 _5 minutes before first period_

 **1-A… 1-A… Where's my class?**

 **Dang, this place is bigger than I thought!**

 **Oh, here it is.**

 **I wonder who my classmates are going to be…**

Izuku opened the door to class 1-A and immediately heard two people shouting at each other.

Bakugou was at his seat with his feet on his desk, and the glasses-wearing boy from the entrance exam was standing beside him.

"Remove your feet from that desk! Such an action is an insult to those who came to U.A. before us as well as the craftsmen who made this desk!" The glasses-wearing teen stated.

"The fuck do I care?! Who the fuck are you to tell me what to do anyway?!"

"My name is Iida Tenya. I'm from Somei Private Academy," said Iida while adjusting his glasses.

"Somei?! One of those elite stuck-ups?! Stop bothering me or I'll blow your head clean off!"

"How awful! Do you really wish to become a hero?!" Iida flinched in horror at Bakugou's threat.

Right at this moment, Iida noticed Izuku at the door and walked towards him. "Greetings. I'm from Somei Private Academy…"

"Yeah, I heard what you said there, Iida Tenya, right? I'm Midoriya Izuku."

"Midoriya, you stood against the giant robot with no hesitation! You truly are the superior candidate! I apologize for misjudging your intentions for that girl." Iida declared stiffly.

"Um, thanks?" Izuku forced a smile in response, not knowing how to react to Iida's statement.

"Ah, Deku-kun! Good morning!" Izuku turned around to see Uraraka arriving at the door.

 **Oh, wow! She looks pretty cute in that uniform.**

"Hey, I really enjoyed that lunch the other day, we should go there again sometime!" Uraraka said cheerfully.

"Sure! So long as you don't ta-"

"If you're here to socialize, then get out." A grumpy voice mumbled from behind Uraraka, seemingly coming from the ground.

Izuku and Uraraka turned around to see a frazzled man with long and messy shoulder-length dark hair, lying on the ground in a yellow sleeping bag.

The frazzled man sipped a whole packet of herbal soup in one gulp, and stepped out of the sleeping bag as he shuffled into the class.

 **Is that… our teacher? He looks like some homeless guy…**

 **I feel like I've seen him from somewhere before…**

"It took eight seconds for you to quiet down. Time is a precious resource, you lot aren't very rational, aren't you?" said the frazzled man as he dragged his sleeping bag to the front of the class.

"I'm Aizawa Shota. Pleased to meet you, I'm your homeroom teacher," said the man in a monotone as he pulled some clothing out of the sleeping bag he was carrying.

"Now, all of you, go change into your gym clothes and head out to the sports grounds." Aizawa demanded as he held up a blue tracksuit lined with white stripes that formed the letters 'U A'.

* * *

"Bakugou, how far could you throw in middle school?" asked Aizawa as the class was gathered around the baseball throwing range.

"Seventy meters." Bakugou answered.

"Great, now try it with your quirk. Do it however you need to, just don't leave the circle. Give it all you've got." Aizawa said as he tossed a baseball with some kind of built-in sensor towards Bakugou, who was standing in the pitcher circle.

"Heh, with pleasure." Bakugou caught the ball and wound back his arm for a throw.

"DIE!" screamed Bakugou as he threw the ball with a large explosion, propelling it into a sky like a cannon.

Aizawa held out a tablet device towards the class, the screen displaying Bakugou's results:

 _710.2m_

"Now then, as Bakugou demonstrated. I want all of you to perform your physical tests by incorporating your quirk."

 **I see... That's an effective way for the teacher to gauge our capabilities...**

 **I wonder how I can go about this with Mom's quirk…**

"Oh, by the way, the one with the lowest score across all of the sports tests will be judged hopeless, and will be expelled." Aizawa announced casually to everyone's horror and dismay.

 **Wait, what?!**

 **But everyone here has passed the entrance exam out of thousands of candidates!**

 **And we can still get kicked out?!**

 **Wait a sec, could this be a bluff to make everyone try their best?**

 _ **[Insufficient data]**_

 **Hmm, I don't know Aizawa-sensei's track record, so this could be a 50-50 bluff...**

 **Either way, as long as I don't score rock bottom I should be fine...**

"Now let's see what you can do, grasshoppers."

* * *

 _Test 1: 50 meter dash_

 **Whoa, everyone's really creative with their powers!**

 **I should try to remember their performance, maybe I can figure out how to help them improve later on.**

 _ **[Compiling data…]**_

"Midoriya, Bakugou, your turn." Aizawa stated drowsily.

The duo walked to the starting line, looked at each other, and grinned.

"Ready… Go."

Bakugou leaned forward and let out blasts of explosions from both his palms behind him like rocket thrusters. "LET'S FUCKIN' GO!"

 _ **[Analyzing optimal course of action…]**_

 **I'll dig out chunks from the ground and shape the holes like the starting blocks!**

 _ **[Simulating optimal topology…]**_

 _ **[Activating quirk: Puppet String]**_

Izuku started sprinting with his hands reaching out alternately, and pulled out precise portions of dirt from the track where he would step into. Each of the tiny trenches were downward slopes at just the perfect angles for him to pick up maximum speed.

The students of 1-A were surprised at Izuku's run. "Whoa! Look at Midoriya!" "He must've had a lot of practice doing that!"

Bakugou blasted ahead and finished at 4.03 seconds, while Izuku trailed just behind him and finished at 5.13 seconds.

 _Test 2: Grip Strength_

Izuku used Puppet String on the grip measuring device's handle while clenching his fingers as hard as he could, reaching a total grip force of 65kg.

For the remaining events such as standing long jump and side-stepping, Izuku scored slightly above average in the class by mainly using only Puppet String or relying on his own physique. However, for other events that he couldn't apply Puppet String nor his own physicality, he didn't do so well, especially the flexibility tests which quite a few of the students excelled at.

* * *

"Now then, on to the last test. Everyone to the throwing range. You're up first, Uraraka." Aizawa announced.

Uraraka used her Zero Gravity quirk on the ball, and gently threw it into the air. The ball flew so high it disappeared out of sight, then the score reading displayed an infinity symbol.

"Holy crap! She got an infinity!" exclaimed a voice among the students.

All the other students except Izuku proceeded to take turns throwing the ball with their quirk. Bakugou asked if he could have another go, and got a similar result to his first attempt.

"Your turn, Midoriya," said Aizawa.

Izuku walked up to the pitching circle, and made the ball float up from the ground into his hand.

 **Hmm, Mom's quirk can't apply any pushing force…**

 **What can I do to overcome it?**

 _ **[Analyzing optimal course of action…]**_

 **Aha! A throwing sling!**

Izuku let go of the ball and caught it with Puppet String in mid-air, just like the first time he caught his All Might action figure, which made Izuku feel a little nostalgic.

 **Now, if I keep applying just the right amount of force…**

 **And keep adjusting the intervals…**

He started to swing the ball, as if there's an invisible string attached to it. It moved faster and faster with every flick of his wrist. The ball swung in a vertical rotating motion to Izuku's side, creating a circular blur and picking up dust from the ground slightly.

 **Aaaand… launch!**

Then Izuku swung his arm into an uppercut, ejecting the ball into the air. However, the ball flew directly upwards, as if Izuku had released it at the wrong timing, and it landed back within the circle after a few seconds.

 **Eh?! What?! Did I make a mistake?!**

 **I was sure I had my grip on it, where did it go wrong?**

 _ **[Er...r: Sys...]**_

 _ **[...]**_

All of a sudden, Izuku felt his knees buckle slightly, but he managed to catch himself, though just barely. And then, everything started to feel wrong. The view ahead of him remained the same, but deep down he could sense a layer of depth that was once there was now gone. The entire world became dull and lifeless, like a silent song that he had gotten used to for so many years just suddenly disappeared, and its absence was now a gaping void in his mind that he cannot ignore, a catastrophic loss.

 **Huh?! What's going on?!**

"Don't panic, I simply erased your quirk." Aizawa stared at Izuku with red glowing eyes as he noticed the growing fear on his expression.

"You erased my quirk? T-those goggles… I remember now! You're Eraser Head!" Izuku exclaimed.

"I almost forgot, Principal Nezu asked me to pass this message to you. He said he'd expected you to hold back during this test." Aizawa said calmly as he pulled out a note from his pocket.

Most of the students of 1-A were confused at Aizawa's statement. A boy with red spiky hair, Kirishima Eijiro called out: "Hold back? But Midoriya used his quirk so creatively!"

Aizawa blinked to deactivate his Erasure quirk, then proceeded to read from the note: " _We cannot enter into alliance with neighboring princes until we are acquainted with their designs. We are not fit to lead an army on the march unless we are familiar with the face of the country: its mountains and forests, its pitfalls and precipices, its marshes and swamps._ "

Aizawa folded up the note and put it back into his pocket, and applied some eye-drops to his dry bloodshot eyes. "The principal said you'd understand what that meant. You did pretty well today, but do you really want to keep this up? Your classmates are going to be your comrades for the next three years."

A girl with long black hair tied up into a ponytail, Yaoyorozu Momo, held up her hand and spoke: "Aizawa-sensei, that message meant that all of us have to understand each other's abilities so that we can fully trust one another and cooperate properly, but Midoriya here has already displayed the most versatile and impressive usage of his quirk out of all of us today. How could he be hiding anything?"

"Midoriya has not shown his full capability which he displayed in the entrance exam, I was there to witness it!" Iida declared, and Uraraka nodded in agreement.

"No way... You're actually gonna fuckin' do it, Deku?!" Bakugou grinned with exhilaration as he noticed a change in Izuku's expression.

 **Aizawa-sensei is right…**

 **If I keep holding back like this, something bad could happen someday because they didn't realize what I'm capable of.**

 **Well, here goes nothing…**

 _ **[Initializing advanced combat protocols**_ **…** _ **]**_

 _ **[All quirks ready to deploy]**_

With one hand, Izuku used Zero Gravity on the ball, and let it float away slowly around head height in front of him. "Huh? Isn't that Uraraka's quirk?" said Kirishima as the ball started to drift through the air.

He then braced his palms together in front of him towards the ball, posing just like one of his favourite anime characters that reminded him of Bakugou so much. Air started to swirl around his arms as a blob of sweat half the size of the ball started to pool in the center of the vortex.

 **Might as well throw in a little extra for good measure...**

 _ **[Infusing Stockpile energy…]**_

 _ **Flak Cannon Special: FINAL FLASH!**_

The amalgamation from Izuku's palms was launched at the floating ball, then right before impact, it detonated into a flaming eruption that sparked with green arcs of electricity, creating a thunderclap louder than Bakugou's Explosion. Izuku immediately clapped his hands to release the Zero Gravity effect.

 **I could get an infinity just by Uraraka's quirk alone, but I kinda wanna see how far I can launch it...**

Everyone stared in silence for a moment while covering their ears, then Aizawa looked at the reading:

 _Sensor error. Please contact a technician._

As the smoke cleared, scattered pieces of electronics can be seen throughout the throwing range, along with a few shreds of baseball skin.

"Midoriya, I asked you to not hold back, not go overboard. I'm going to count this as a zero." Aizawa said with a slightly annoyed expression.

"You fucked up! HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Bakugou burst out in laughter after hearing Aizawa's verdict, clutching his stomach in hysteria and pointing at Izuku, who could only cover his face in embarrassment.

* * *

"Alright. Moving along, time for the results."

 **Crap, I really hope that zero didn't drag down my average score too much** **…**

 **There's a chance the lowest score could be expelled…**

 **Please be a ruse, please be a ruse…**

"Also, I lied about expelling someone." Aizawa said as an afterthought with a cunning smile. "That was a rational deception meant to bring out the best in all of you."

 **Oh thank all the gods! I was half right!**

"WHAAAAAAAT?!" Everyone else in the class cried out.

"Of course it was a lie, didn't take much to figure that out…" Yaoyorozu said with a slight disappointment at the class's reaction.

 **She figured that out too?**

 **She's probably the smartest one in our class so far, even I wasn't so sure of my guess...**

Aizawa clicked on a handheld device, and a hologram projection appeared to display the class's results. Izuku's ranking ended up last among the students.

 **Damn, I guess that can't be helped, everyone else has at least one exceptional score, while I wasted my chance on that ball...**

"Alright, we're done here. Your documents about the curriculum and such are back in the classroom. Go give them a look."

* * *

 _After first day of school_

Izuku exited the main school building together with his best friend, carrying a dejected expression as he walked.

Bakugou looked at him with a sneer and said: "Dude, you're still fuckin' upset about that shit?"

"Yeah… I got a little too excited and forgot to check for that ball's structural strength. I could've adjusted for it…" Izuku mumbled.

"Please do not feel bad for yourself!" said a familiar voice as Izuku felt a sudden stiff grip on his shoulder.

"GAH! Iida, you scared me! I didn't even hear you coming!" Izuku jumped at the sensation, and his scream also made Bakugou flinch slightly.

"You did your best. The destruction of the ball was a mere technical flaw that was out of your control!" Iida added.

The pitter-patter of running footsteps approached from behind as they heard Uraraka's voice call out: "Hey, you guys! Are you all heading to the station? Wait up!"

"Oh, you're the infinity girl." Iida blurted out.

"I'm Uraraka Ochako! You're Iida Tenya, right? You're friends with Deku-kun and Bakugou too?"

"Sorry, Uraraka. Kacchan and I aren't going home yet, we're actually heading out for some ramen right now," answered Izuku.

"Oh! I wanna go too! Hey, Iida! You wanna come along? The ramen's really good!" Uraraka said with an eager glint in her eyes.

"Certainly, I could use some nourishment right now. Would you mind if I join in, Midoriya?" Iida said in a formal manner as he put a hand over his chest.

"Sure. Why not?" Izuku nodded without a second thought as Bakugou was about to voice his objection.

"Wha-? Goddammit, Deku! At this rate we're gonna end up bringing the whole fuckin' class to that stall!"

* * *

 **Next chapter: Battle Training!**

 **As of 27th October 2019, chapters 1 to 12 have been rewritten.**

 **Feel free to leave a review. Thanks for reading!**


	8. Chapter 8: Contact

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from My Hero Academia, nor do I own concepts of any other anime, manga, videogame or TV shows used in this story.

Author's note: This story is simply written for fun, I expect I would make plenty of amateur mistakes.

 **Texts like this** are Izuku's voluntary thoughts from his perspective.

 ** _[Texts like this]_** represents thoughts that comes from his subconscious, where the majority of his quirk manifests. All of Izuku's subconscious thoughts are not actually verbal. To Izuku, they're merely flashes of notions that happen in very short moments. After all, they come from his intuition.

* * *

 **Chapter 8: Contact**

 _The next day, afternoon_

"I AM… HERE…" All Might's voice can be heard from inside class 1-A, as he bursts open the door in a dramatic pose. "…COMING THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A HERO!"

The students of class 1-A were instantly reinvigorated at the sight of the number one hero, a far cry from the boring air of earlier morning's English class taught by Present Mic. "It's All Might! Incredible! He's really gonna teach us!" "That's his silver age costume!" "I'm getting goose-bumps!"

All Might strolled boisterously to the teacher's podium and put his fists to his waist while puffing out his chest. "Hero Basic Training! This is a class that'll put you through all sorts of special training to mold you into heroes!"

"No time to dally! Today's activity is this! Battle training!" All Might then held out a cue card with the word 'BATTLE' towards the class. The excitement among the students seemed to increase tenfold at the announcement.

"…And for that, you all need to look the part!" All Might pointed a tiny remote towards the classroom's side wall and pressed a button. "These are designed for you based on your quirk registration forms and the special requests you sent in before school started!"

Along the wall, several columns of lockers extended outwards with a mechanical hum. On each of the lockers were number labels that corresponded with the students. "All right! Costumes!" cheered the class.

"Now go get changed! After that, proceed to Ground Beta!" "Yes, sir!"

* * *

 _Ground Beta test area_

All Might stood tall at the entrance, waiting for the students to enter. One by one, the students of Class 1-A walked proudly into view, each clad in their own customized costume that complements their quirk.

The last to arrive was Izuku, who wore a dark-green sleeveless pullover hoodie lined with a few white stripes, a pair of black cargo shorts, and his favourite pair of red sneakers.

"Hey Deku-kun! You haven't changed yet?" Uraraka looked at Izuku with a curious eye just as he caught up with the group. "Wait… Is that your costume?"

"Well, kind of, but not really. You'll see later." Izuku hinted with a smile.

"Listen up, you newbies! It's time for battle training!" All Might declared with his booming voice, as he read from a folded-up cheat sheet. "These are the rules! You will all be divided into pairs…"

* * *

"Hah! What are the fuckin' chances, Deku?! We're gonna wipe the floor with these guys!" Bakugou said excitedly as the lot drawing for teams had just finished.

"Don't get too cocky now, Kacchan. We don't know who we're facing yet." Izuku replied with a grin, trying his best to suppress the overconfidence for getting to team up with his best friend.

"Now then! First up are these two teams!" All Might reached into two boxes simultaneously and took out a ball in each hand. Marked on each ball are the letters B for the 'Heroes' box, and D for the 'Villains' box.

"Hell yeah! Bring it the fuck on, scholarship scrubs! You two are going down!" Bakugou taunted the members of team B.

 **Oh shit. Yaoyorozu and Todoroki?! The top two in the sports test?!**

 **And even worse, their quirks are near impossible for me to predict because of the infinite ways they can use it…**

"Alright! Team D goes in first! You have five minutes to plan and prepare!" announced All Might.

* * *

 _Mock villain stronghold, 4_ _th_ _floor, bomb room_

"Okay, what's the plan, Deku?" Bakugou looked at Izuku in anticipation.

"Gimme a moment, Kacchan…" Izuku said as he closed his eyes while taking in deep breaths.

 **Okay, don't think too much, let's just work on what I've seen during the sports test…**

 **Yaoyorozu can make anything from her skin as long as it's portable.**

 **Todoroki can make ice structures and freeze objects but the frost always have to originate from him.**

 _ **[Assessing situation…]**_

 _ **[Analyzing optimal course of action…]**_

Izuku opened his eyes and began to rattle out words in quick succession: "Okay, here's the plan. We're going to put the bomb in the biggest room in this building, and since that's here, this saves us some time. I'm going to cover it with Lumber to keep them from touching it. But that means we can't move it on the fly, it's stuck here. So we're gonna have to play around that fact. You remember that FPS game Diamond Six Siege?"

Bakugou nodded at Izuku's words without missing a beat, as if he's used to this.

"This is basically like that Bomb Defense game mode, except if the attackers touch the objective with even a finger, they win. So, I'm also going to lay down some thorn brambles on the ground to slow them down…"

"Just like that barbed wire gadget in the game!" Bakugou noted.

"…Yep, but I can't grow that stuff everywhere or I'll wear myself out, so it will just be on the stairs to this floor and a few choke points on the way here. The bomb will also be surrounded by these brambles, that means it will be too risky for both of us to use Explosion anywhere near it, so you're going to have to be the 'roamer', and pick a fight away from this room. We'll be doing divide and conquer, try to keep one busy and fake an opening for the other to slip through, because there's a chance they could take you out if they gang up on you. If they don't fall for it, retreat back here by blowing through that wall on the far side over there, because I will be reinforcing the doors from the inside. If you manage to retreat back here I'll plug up the hole with thick tree trunks, and we'll figure it out from there." Izuku muttered while pointing to the corresponding places around the room.

"Got it. I assume it's better if I go for Iceman and keep him away from here? Since my quirk works best against him, if he reaches this room we both won't be able to do anything against his ice if he got near the bomb." Bakugou suggested.

"Yeah. I'll handle Yaoyorozu when she gets here. She'll need time to pry the thorns off the bomb to reach it, so she _has_ to capture me first. Go for Todoroki as soon as possible, but be careful, we don't know what his full capabilities are yet. He could just flash freeze you on contact so don't let him touch you no matter what. From what I've seen, his ice only comes out from his right side, but don't assume his left is useless either, it could just be his preference. If you're both still fighting once I capture her I'll come and help you."

Bakugou nodded in confirmation. "Got it. Plan A: I go for Iceman, you wait for Ponytail here. Plan B: I retreat back here and we hold down the place while trying not to burn down the bomb. Anything else?"

"Don't get captured. If both plans fail, we improvise. Let's do this, Kacchan."

The duo gave each other a bro hug and went into positions to execute their plans.

* * *

 _5 minutes later, mock villain stronghold ground floor_

The PA system blared out All Might's voice: "Are you ready heroes and villains? You've got 15 minutes to finish the match! Start!"

"Todoroki, give me a few moments, I can make a camera drone to-" Yaoyorozu said as she began to use her quirk, but she was stopped by her partner, a boy clad in a layer of ice armor on the entire left side of his body.

"No need. Step outside, it's about to get frosty in here." Todoroki put his right hand on a wall, and frost started to spread rapidly to every surface of the building from his palm. "They can defend however they want, but that means nothing to me."

"GET THE FUCK OUT UNLESS YOU WANNA DIE!" The frost was on the verge of spreading to the second floor as Bakugou came running out towards Todoroki from a corridor inside, pointing one of his gauntlets at him. A huge inferno then enveloped the entire corridor with a thundering boom, and Todoroki was forced to create ice boulders to block it while swiftly retreating around a corner.

The ice walls shattered from the fiery wrath as Bakugou's silhouette emerged from the smoke, standing in the middle of the slightly charred but otherwise undamaged corridor. "LET'S FUCKING GO! YOU'RE BOTH DEAD!"

* * *

 _Bomb room_

A massive rumble could be heard throughout the building that made it tremble slightly.

 **Kacchan pulled the pin this early?!**

 **I'm hearing explosions down below!**

" _Shit, Deku! I lost her! She's heading for you!_ " Bakugou's voice radioed through the micro-transceiver in Izuku's ear.

 **Nice going Kacchan! Our trick worked!**

 **Now I just have to wait for her to get into this room…**

 **I should have a few minutes to spare...**

 **I've got a little use of Lumber left, let's use it to gear up...**

Izuku flexed and used Lumber throughout his entire body. Wooden bracers enveloped his forearms, and pauldrons wrapped over his shoulders and upper arm. Underneath his hoodie appeared wooden platings that covered both his front and back, which also extended out from the bottom of the clothing to cover his waist and thighs, while still hanging loose enough to allow him ease of mobility. Below, shin guards appeared on his legs, but leaving his shoes uncovered. Overall, he looked like he was wearing a set of light samurai armor made of dark-green wood, and somehow managed to wear his hoodie over it.

As a finishing touch, Izuku put a hand over his mouth and made a protective mask similar to Kamui Wood's, then he drew out a bokken (blunt wooden katana) from his palm.

Right on cue, Izuku heard noises of branches breaking outside the door in the direction where the stairs were.

 **Looks like she's here.**

 **It sounds like… the clinking of metal against wood? A machete maybe?**

Izuku went to put himself between the bomb and Yaoyorozu's possible direction of entry. Footsteps can be heard approaching one of the doors that Izuku sealed up with Lumber. She attempted to open with the handle from the outside but the door did not budge.

 **She's stuck at the door, what will she do now?**

 _ **[Simulating possible target actions…]**_

 _ **[Error: Boundary conditions unavailable]**_

 **I can only react to what she does next, I have no way of knowing all the possible items she can make.**

 _ **[Initializing advanced combat protocols...]**_

 _ **[All quirks ready to deploy]**_

Holding his bokken in one hand, Izuku prepared an Air Cannon shot in his other, aiming it at the door. A ruffling sound came from the door like someone was patting it with some kind of soft material.

 **What's she doing pushing against the door?**

 **Can't she see all those roots on it?**

 _ **[Simulating possible target actions…]**_

 _ **[Error: Boundary conditions unavailable]**_

 **Crap, still can't predict what she might do…**

 **I'd thought she'd make a chainsaw or some-**

*KABOOM!*

Izuku's thoughts were immediately cut off by the door being violently blown off its hinges as broken branches and dust flew everywhere in front of him.

 **HOLY FUCK THAT'S A BREACH CHARGE!**

 **Why didn't I think of that?! She can make ANYTHING!**

 **Oh no… If she knows how to do that, that means next would be-**

Two small canisters of different colors were tossed into the room.

 _ **[Analyzing targets…]**_

 _ **[ALERT: Expel targets immediately]**_

 **Flashbang and tear gas?! Shit!**

 **I only have enough time for one shot!**

 _ **[Analyzing target priority…]**_

Izuku fired the Air Cannon shot towards the tear gas canister and launched it out of the room, as the stun grenade detonated in a deafening bang and blinding light. The blast made Izuku clutch his ears in pain as he barely managed to look away in time.

Yaoyorozu charged into the room wearing a gas mask and holding a metallic staff. Tied to the tip of the staff was a sturdy noose fashioned out of capture tape.

"Kacchan! She's in here! I got hit with a flashbang!" Izuku yelled into his voice comms.

 **Dammit, my ear's still ringing, I won't be able to hear Kacchan's response!**

Seeing Izuku still disoriented, Yaoyorozu lunged towards him with her staff at the ready.

 _ **[Analyzing target kinaesthetics...]**_

 _ **[Generating countermeasures...]**_

Izuku proceeded to clash weapons with Yaoyorozu in a flurry of swings and stabs with his own bokken, each parry and strike executed in perfect form. Yet Yaoyorozu didn't seem to be fazed by Izuku's retaliation, as she continued to wield the staff with powerful grace.

 **She's keeping the pressure on me, I can't find an opening!**

 **And she's like a master with that staff, one wrong move and she could slip that tape onto me!**

Yaoyorozu then mixed up her attacks by combining them with her quirk, protruding out staffs from her skin that jabbed at Izuku's every opening. Slowly but surely, dents and cracks are beginning to form on Izuku's wooden armor from those impacts.

 _ **[ALERT: Excessive probable vectors]**_

 **Crap, I can't keep up with her quirk!**

 _ **[Assessing situation...]**_

 **I can't use any more Lumber or I'll risk dehydrating and lose stamina…**

 **I can't charge up an Air Cannon shot fast enough, I'm just barely blocking her strikes with a two-handed grip…**

 **I can't use Fire Breath or Explosion with the bomb right behind me, any spark could light it up!**

 **And I don't have any Stockpile energy left since yesterday…**

 **Fine! Two can play at this game!**

 **She must have trained with many weapons to go with her quirk…**

 **I'll just make something she's not familiar with!**

 **Think Izuku! What would be effective against a weapon master?**

 _ **[Analyzing memory data…]**_

 **Aizawa-sensei's scarf! He uses it for melee combatants!**

 _ **[Object data found]**_

Izuku made a feint that would allow Yaoyorozu an opening to wrap the tape around his neck, as he reached a hand for her arm.

"Nice try! But I've got you now!" Yaoyorozu responded with a firm voice.

 _ **[Analyzing target physiology…]**_

 _ **[Emitter quirk detected; Assimilating…]**_

 _ **[Quirk: Creation; Assimilation complete]**_

Yaoyorozu's capture tape was inches away from Izuku's skin, when she noticed the familiar cyan and pink glimmer of her Creation quirk around her target's neck. The capture tape was instantly ripped apart as Aizawa's signature capture weapon appeared in its place in a span of milliseconds.

"What?! How did you make something that complex when you just copied my quirk?! I can't even use my quirk that fast!" The sight caught Yaoyorozu off guard, making her stop her assault. She unconsciously backed away a few steps, a mixture of caution and disbelief could be seen in her eyes through the visor of her gas mask. "It needs knowledge of molecular structures to even work properly!"

 **Think of those hero video footages, remember how Eraserhead fights!**

 _ **[Integrating memory data into combat routine…]**_

"I never said I copied quirks, I _learn_ how to do them. The same way I know exactly how to make Aizawa-sensei's scarf just by having seen it in person before, and I don't even know how to explain what it's made of…" Izuku replied with a grin behind his faceplate as he tossed his bokken to the side.

 _ **[Analyzing optimal course of action…]**_

 **Now if my guess is right…**

 **She's going to do something similar as I did to push apart those binds…**

 **But this scarf is just a distraction, it's time to use** **Mom's quirk!**

 **I have to get the split-second timing just right!**

In one swift movement, Izuku grabbed a few strands of his alloy scarf, and lashed it out towards Yaoyorozu's upper body; at the same time, he reached for the roll of capture tape in his pocket with his other hand, held on the dangling end of the capture tape with Puppet String, then tossed the entire roll just to the side of her body behind her, trailing the tape through the air the same time as the scarf.

The scarf swiftly coiled around Yaoyorozu to bind her arms to her torso, she immediately reacted by Creating a rubber tire around her entire upper body, forcing the alloy scarf outwards. Izuku reached out another hand with Puppet String for the tape roll behind Yaoyorozu, to pull it back to him from her other side, essentially making the roll travel a U-turn around her and back to him.

 **Perfect! She hasn't noticed it because of the scarf!**

 **Now to tie it around her!**

The rubber tire had just started to fall to the ground. Seizing the moment, Izuku closed the distance while looping the capture tape around her with Puppet String. Yaoyorozu barely had enough time to react at the sight of the floating tape roll, as Izuku wrapped his arms around her while clutching the tape on two ends. "Gotcha! Capture complete!"

* * *

"Yaoyorozu Momo of Team B is captured! She's out of the match!" All Might announced on the intercom.

"Hey! If you're done, get your ass down here! Huff… huff… I'm still fighting this fuckin' popsicle!" Bakugou's voice blared through Izuku's ear, as explosions can still be heard from below, though the intensity has died down significantly.

Izuku was about to move away from Yaoyorozu, when she immediately put her arms around him to stop him. "W-wait! D-don't let go yet!"

 **Huh? Why?**

 _ **[Analyzing target physiology…]**_

 **Huh, I never realized she's the same height as me.**

 **Why is her heart rate spiking sky high? The fight's over…**

 **She's blushing? It's just a hug, what's the big de-**

 **OH CRAP! DON'T LOOK DOWN!**

It was at this point Izuku realized that Yaoyorozu's entire upper body was completely exposed, except for the scrap of cloth that used to be her collar. The only things protecting her dignity right now were his own body, and the tangled mess of his alloy scarf draped around them, both which were hiding her exposure from the cameras.

Both of their faces were beet red at the realization. Their respective masks were enough to cover their embarrassment from the cameras, but definitely not from each other at this distance where their masks were touching one another. Yaoyorozu muttered nervously: "I-it happened when I made that tire… Wait, g-give me a moment to make my c-costume again…"

Izuku felt Yaoyorozu use her quirk through his contact, but he asked for confirmation just in case. "Uhm, i-is it finished?" Yaoyorozu merely responded with a few nods while trying to avoid eye contact.

"Okay, uhm, I'll just… g-go now…" Izuku gestured awkwardly at the door that was blasted open, as he let go of the blushing girl who was now crossing her arms in front of her chest.

Just as Izuku was halfway down the stairwell, All Might's voice boomed across the test grounds. "Time's up! Hero team has failed to secure the weapon! Villain team wins!"

* * *

 _Training monitoring room_

The four participants of the first round stood side by side in front of the class. Bakugou and Todoroki looked like they were both completely exhausted and half-dead, though both only had minor scrapes; even Bakugou wasn't able to spare any energy to glare at his newfound rival. Izuku and Yaoyorozu kept blushing and avoiding eye contact with each other now that their masks are off, they both seemed unharmed aside from Izuku's damaged wooden armor.

"Now then! Evaluation time! Can any of you point out their faults?" All Might asked the class.

Iida raised his hand to speak. "All Might-sensei. That explosive device that Yaoyorozu used to blast open the door, isn't that a risky thing to do to a room that has a supposed nuclear weapon?"

"Ah! I can explain that! That's called a breach charge! In the past, I've worked with special-forces officers before, and they used these things to open obstructed doors! The beauty of their design is that their damage is just enough to blow away the door and anything directly behind it! So Yaoyorozu's method of opening the door did not risk damaging the bomb at all! Well, unless the bomb itself was directly behind the door, of course, but it would be foolish for Midoriya to risk the bomb being recovered so easily!" All Might's answer prompted a few students to nod in understanding.

"Anyone else have anything to mention?" All Might continued.

"I do, All Might-sensei." Yaoyorozu said as she raised her hand when she temporarily regained her composure. "I lost focus when I saw Midoriya use my quirk in a way that I did not expect. I will remember not to underestimate my foes next time."

All Might made a thumbs-up at Yaoyorozu. "Excellent! What about you Midoriya? Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

"I uh, I lost focus near the end when Kacchan called for backup and hesitated… because uh… because I got tangled in that scarf I made, yep! I'll p-pay more attention in the future." Both he and Yaoyorozu simultaneously blushed again at the mention of that incident.

Everyone else in the class were slightly perplexed at their red faces as nobody else knew the truth of what happened. "It's alright, you two! You don't have to be embarrassed at your mistakes! You're all here to learn after all!" All Might reassured them.

"Alright, nicely done! I think that covers the evaluation for this round's teams! All four of you did splendidly! I couldn't find any other obvious mistakes you did!" praised All Might. "Especially you two, young Bakugou and Todoroki! Nice job keeping yourselves from damaging the stronghold too much! And despite being weighed down by the strain of fatigue, you both kept up the fight so your partners could fulfill their duty! Well done! Both of you truly went Plus Ultra!"

"Alright, then! Let's draw for the teams of round two!"

* * *

 _Moments after last period, inside class 1-A_

"Hey Kacchan! Ramen today?" Izuku tapped Bakugou's shoulder from behind him.

"Hell no man. I'm still feeling wasted, think I'm gonna go home and sleep 'til morning. Fuckin' piece of shit Popsicle just wouldn't die…" Bakugou mumbled lethargically.

 **Is Kacchan okay?**

 _ **[Analyzing target physiology…]**_

 _ **[Target energy levels low; No anomaly detected]**_

 **Phew, looks like he's fine, he just needs a good night's rest.**

"Oh, okay. See you tomorrow then, Kacchan! Stay safe!" Izuku said as he started to pack up his belongings.

"Hey, Midoriya! That battle was wild, man! That samurai armor you made was manly as hell too!" The boy with spiky red hair in the class said as he approached Izuku.

"Huh? Oh, you're… uhm…" Izuku was surprised by the compliment and didn't know how to react.

"I'm Kirishima Eijiro! We were all just discussing the battle training over there!" said Kirishima with a friendly smile as he pointed a thumb at another group of students behind him.

"Oh, oh! We're doing introductions?" A girl with pink skin and two tiny horns from the group hopped over to join Kirishima. "I'm Ashido Mina! Your moves with that sword were really neat too!"

Eventually, the students from the other group all moved over to join in on the conversation.

"I'm Asui Tsuyu, just call me Tsuyu," said a round-eyed girl who seemed to have characteristics that resembled a frog's. "I'm Sato Rikido! We were super pumped after that crazy first round you guys did!" said a thick-lipped boy with a large build.

"Midoriya, are you close friends with Bakugou or something? That guy's intense! How do you even get along with him so well?" asked Kirishima with a genuine curiosity.

"Oh, I grew up with him! He's always been a little aggressive, but deep down he's a really nice guy! He's just not very good at expressing it…"

Hearing the mention of Bakugou's name, Uraraka walked over to Izuku. "Deku-kun, I just saw Bakugou leave the class alone. He didn't look very well, is he okay?"

"Don't worry, he's fine. I examined him with my quirk, he's just super tired." Izuku reassured with a smile.

"With your quirk? Isn't your quirk a copycat quirk or something Midoriya?" Ashido leaned closer towards Izuku with a look of intrigue.

"Hmm, my quirk would actually take a while to explain properly… How 'bout this? I was going to ask Kacchan to go for some ramen together, but he had to go back early. Do you guys wanna come along?"

"Ramen?! Hell yeah, man!" Kirishima pumped a fist in acknowledgement.

"Me too, me too!" Ashido squealed in excitement.

"Ramen sounds nice, ribbit." Asui said with a subtle smile.

"I always appreciate good food, sure!" Sato nodded enthusiastically.

"Hey, hey Iida! We're going to that ramen stall again, you wanna come?" Uraraka waved her hands at Iida across the classroom.

"Most definitely! The noodles were quite delectable!"

The people who were invited started calling the others to come along, and soon after, Kaminari Denki, Jiro Kyoka, Sero Hanta, Ojiro Mashirao and Hagakure Tooru joined in.

* * *

"You guys go ahead first, I'll catch up later! And Iida, could you please help me order my food once you get there? Just tell the stall owner my name and say I'm ordering the usual. Oh, and don't let anyone eat up my shrimps!" called out Izuku.

"Rest assured, Midoriya! I will make certain your request is accomplished!" Iida said as he walked away with the group.

Izuku quickly walked over to Yaoyorozu and called out to her just as she was about to leave the classroom door.

"Uhm, yes, Midoriya? Can I help you with anything?" Yaoyorozu replied awkwardly, trying to avoid direct eye contact, evidently still affected by that afternoon's event.

"I want to apologize about what happened, I didn't-"

Yaoyorozu seemed to understand his intent and interjected. "No, it's not your fault. I'm already used to the fact that my costume could be damaged from my quirk usage. It's just… I didn't expect you to rush towards me at that moment…"

Both of them started going red again at the mere recall of that incident, but Yaoyorozu managed to regain her composure and continued. "…You outplayed me fair and square. I simply… lost my focus the moment I saw you copy my quirk and used it better than I did. I just didn't stand a chance…"

"Hey, that's not true." Izuku objected. "You're the smartest girl I've ever met! In fact, you could have just overpowered me easily too!"

"Y-you think so?" Yaoyorozu blushed slightly with a hesitant smile.

"Yeah! Do you realize how awesome that breaching tactic was? That's like some special forces stuff! That really caught me off guard, had I been caught in that tear gas I would've been toast!"

"But, what about the way you used my quirk? You made it look so easy... I don't think I could ever make anything that fast..."

"Actually, if I can do it, chances are, you can too with a bit of practice."

"How? I've been practicing my quirk for years and I've never even come close to Creating something so fast..."

"Well, uhm, that could take a while to explain... My quirk's kinda complicated..." Izuku self-consciously scratched his head with a frown. "But, my point is: don't undermine yourself by thinking other people can use your quirk easily. The fact that you need to study molecular science to use your quirk proves just how good you are. If it wasn't for my own quirk, anyone else using your quirk would've gotten blobs of junk out of it."

Yaoyorozu seemed to cheer up with a slight chuckle, then she suddenly had an inquisitive look on her face. "Wait, so how exactly did you know how to make Aizawa-sensei's scarf? And what did you mean when you said you _learn_ quirks?"

Izuku rubbed the back of his neck nervously and started muttering his words in rapid-fire. "Yeah, about that... So, I was going to apologize to you by treating you to dinner, most of the class will be there too. We're going to a ramen stall at Tatooin Shopping District, would you like to come? The food there is pretty fatty though, I'm not sure if you prefer that, even though your quirk uses fat cells-"

Yaoyorozu simply giggled at Izuku's neurotic mumbling, and nodded before he could finish talking. "Yes! Of course! I love fatty food! I've also been looking forward to hanging out with our classmates!" Her sudden outburst of bouncy positivity surprised Izuku and made his heart skip a beat.

"O-okay! Wait here a second, I'll go get my bag then!"

* * *

 **So I didn't want Izuku to overpower his opponents like Todoroki did in the canon battle trial, and Izuku+Ochako vs Bakugou+Iida combos are overdone anyway, so I thought I'd just throw in the four strongest in the class and let them duke it out to give this Izuku a challenge. I tried to imagine how Izuku would fight the three of them in a one on one, turns out Izuku vs Momo seemed the most fun to write. Oh, and I gave this Izuku a slight boost from his canon height, this is an AU anyway.**

 **As of 27th October 2019, chapters 1 to 12 have been rewritten.**

 **Feel free to leave a review. Thanks for reading!**


	9. Chapter 9: Inquiry

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from My Hero Academia, nor do I own concepts of any other anime, manga, videogame or TV shows used in this story.

Author's note: This story is simply written for fun, I expect I would make plenty of amateur mistakes.

 **Texts like this** are Izuku's voluntary thoughts from his perspective.

 ** _[Texts like this]_** represents thoughts that comes from his subconscious, where the majority of his quirk manifests. All of Izuku's subconscious thoughts are not actually verbal. To Izuku, they're merely flashes of notions that happen in very short moments. After all, they come from his intuition.

* * *

 **Chapter 9: Inquiry**

 _En route to Tatooin Shopping District_

"So… how did you know my quirk uses fat cells? Is it the same way how you can 'feel' and understand objects just by looking at them?" Yaoyorozu asked Izuku as they were walking out of the school entrance.

"Not quite, for some reason quirks are more complicated than that. I actually have to touch the corresponding body part that has the quirk to understand it, which in your case is your uhm… skin…" They both started to feel embarrassed again, but recovered from their fluster much sooner than previous times, and they even started to chuckle at the mention of it.

Izuku perked up in realization at Yaoyorozu's question. "Wait! You understood my mumbling?! I didn't think anyone would pay attention to it except for Kacchan, people always thought it was creepy whenever I did that…"

"Hmm? What do you mean? I could understand you just fine, you didn't sound creepy to me at all." Yaoyorozu tilted her head with a confused look.

"Oh. Uhm… it's nothing, never mind…" Izuku tried to brush off the subject, but the tinge of red on his face had no signs of fading.

"So how many quirks do you have? I'm thinking at least…" Yaoyorozu started counting mentally as she walked beside Izuku. "…that pulling telekinesis, and explosion you did in the sports test, the tree branches this afternoon, and the blast of pressurized air… four?"

"Nope, try again." Izuku replied with a smug grin.

"Five?" "Six?" "Seven?" Izuku shook his head at each of her guesses, which she responded wordlessly with her cheeks puffed out and an irritated glare. The sight of her pouting shattered Izuku's resolve to tease her and made him blurt out the correct answer. "Technically, I only have one quirk, my own."

"Wait, really?"

"Yeah. It's a mutation quirk, it affects my entire nervous system. Every other quirk that you've seen me do is just me actively thinking about using it, like a skill or knowledge. I'm not sure how to explain it properly, since there hasn't been a proper consensus on the subject of quirks…" Izuku paused for a moment of consideration before continuing.

"…Basically, for all the other quirks I've learned, I don't have their 'essence' in me. I can perform them because my nervous system can process and transmit that information throughout my body, the same reasons that allows my body to 'understand' what I'm telling it to do. In a silly way, I guess you could say my body is more adaptable and 'smarter' than other people's."

"I see… Oh, does that mean you can control your own heart rate or something?"

"Nope, it's still handled by my subconscious like everyone else. However, I have noticed that I don't need to warm up or cool down for exercising like people normally do. My guess is that my subconscious understands and rapidly adapts my heart rate according to the situation…"

Yaoyorozu raised an eyebrow at Izuku's answer. "Wow, that sounds convenient… So how many quirks can you _do_ then?"

"Oh, plenty. I've lost count, but probably a couple dozen, for the ones I bothered to remember at least."

"A couple dozen? Then you shouldn't have even broken a sweat against me in that fight, no?"

"Well, maybe, but then our fight wouldn't have ended exactly the way it did, which was totally calculated by the wa-OW OW OW OW!" Yaoyorozu pinched him on the cheek, hard.

"Hmm? Sorry Midoriya, I think I didn't hear that right. Do you want to repeat that again?" She let go of his cheek and then just smiled politely.

Feeling a chill run up his spine, Izuku rubbed his sore cheek and rephrased: "W-well, on a serious note, most of the quirks I know aren't exactly useful in combat, like these." He pointed to his head, then his dark green messy hair transformed into a long silky black much like Yaoyorozu's, then retracted into short spiky blonde hair like Bakugou's, then back to his own hair color and texture.

Yaoyorozu was just about to giggle at how wacky he looked, when he held up a hand and his fingers started bending around at unnatural angles like a tiny octopus, some even curved all the way to the back of his hand. And then with a quick mischievous glance to ensure nobody else was watching, that same hand quickly reached up and pulled his eyeball out of its socket like it was nothing, and held it in front of her face.

"AAAH! GET IT AWAY!" Yaoyorozu shrieked and reflexively slapped his hand away, causing himself to scream too as he dropped his eyeball. It swung around his chin, dangling on a tether that was connected to the inside of his eye socket, then it immediately pulled itself back into his skull with a disgusting _plop_ sound.

Blushing heavily at her own reaction, she then slapped Izuku on the arm a little too hard as she frowned with a pouty face again. "That was crude! Don't scare me like that!"

"Ow! Sorry…" Izuku winced at the pain and rubbed his eye, though still snickered at his successful prank. "So… yeah, now you can see why I couldn't just overwhelm you with a ton of quirks in that fight. Also, really sorry about that eye thing, it's not often I get to show off my own quirk, I guess I got a little carried away…"

They continued walking in silence for a bit, when Izuku realized she was still sulking from that prank, so he tried to bring up a different topic to take her mind off his transgression. "Uhm, how about you? You must've studied a lot for your quirk, right? What kind of books do you read?"

"I read a lot about molecular physics and chemistry to keep my quirk updated, mostly research papers. I've recently started on theoretical chemistry, but for casual reading I still prefer non-fiction." Yaoyorozu answered nonchalantly, though her stern glare still conveyed ' _you're not off the hook yet'_.

"C-cool! I like non-fiction too. I mostly read instructive manuals and guides on any useful field of knowledge, stuff like military strategies or philosophy. They're pretty useful in expanding my quirk's potential to find solutions." Yaoyorozu blinked curiously at him as he answered. "However, I do have a soft spot for detective novels and sci-fi, particularly stories where quirks don't exist… And uh… I still like to read those encyclopedias with pictures sometimes, although Kacchan keeps mocking me for it."

"Wait, you like illustrated encyclopedias too?!" Yaoyorozu gasped with delight as her bubbly demeanor suddenly resurfaced and she became much more animated.

"Yeah! Whenever I'm reading a paragraph with a picture in the background, it makes me feel like I'm right there with the narrator's voice in my head."

"I know, right?! It makes you feel like you're on an adventure!"

"Hey, y'know what? I know a vintage book store near the shopping district where we're going. You wanna take a quick detour there? I think you're gonna love their encyclopedia collection." suggested Izuku with a child-like gleam in his eyes.

"Really? I've never been to one, I'd love to!" Yaoyorozu said as her voice went up an octave, and the two of them picked up their pace.

* * *

"Keep going, you can do it!"

"Show 'em who's boss!"

"C'mon! Don't give up now!"

Voices of their classmates' yelling could be heard just as Izuku and Yaoyorozu arrived at the ramen stall. Most of class 1-A could be seen crowding around one side of a long table as they came into view, sitting along the other side of the table were Kirishima, Kaminari and Uraraka.

Upon approaching closer, the three each had a bowl of ramen in front of them, the broths were a shade of dark orange, and the pungent smell was unmistakable to Izuku. It was the stall's infamous spicy ramen, known to inflict torment onto people with even the most fire-resistant quirks. It was how Bakugou found this stall in the first place due to his extreme taste for spicy food, and even he knew better than to prank Izuku's delicate taste buds with it.

Kaminari was seen facing his half-finished bowl, lips completely swollen and drooling with lifeless eyes. His entire face was soaked with sweat, hands shuddering and held in two thumbs up in front of him as he murmured "Wheeeeey…" repeatedly with a hoarse voice.

Kirishima had been using his Hardening quirk on his mouth and tongue to endure the burning pain, yet he too was red-faced and streaming tears. He started to struggle when his bowl was about three-quarters through.

Uraraka had a frightening intensity in her eyes, as she just kept slurping down the noodles in quick succession. She finished her serving just as Izuku and Yaoyorozu arrived right next to the group. She threw her chopsticks hard into the bowl, stood up with her fists raised and screamed in triumph.

Iida announced while posing like a referee beside the table: "Uraraka wins! Kirishima and Kaminari will pay for her share!" The rest of class 1-A who were there cheered for her. Izuku couldn't help but chuckle at the oddly appropriate role that Iida has volunteered for.

"Oh, Midoriya and Yaoyorozu! You're here, ribbit." Asui greeted the two who had just arrived. "Kirishima thought it'd be exciting to challenge the class for some fun, it didn't turn out well for him."

* * *

About thirty minutes later, the students of class 1-A here had finished their meals and were just having fun chatting and mingling. Kirishima and Kaminari however, were both still recovering from their agony, neither had said a word nor moved from their seats, with a number of empty cups in front of them.

"Gosh I wish Recovery Girl was here…" Kirishima managed to mumble through his swollen lips.

 **Ooh, good idea, I wonder if it'll work on something like this?**

 _ **[Activating quirk: Heal]**_

Izuku went to sit beside Kirishima and said aloud: "Why don't we find out?" He proceeded to kiss Kirishima on the back of his hand, surprising everyone around the table. An audible squeal could be heard from Ashido at that exact moment.

A green glow surrounded Kirishima's lower face and throat, then his swelling subsided rapidly. He immediately let out a sigh of relief as the pain faded from his mind. "Holy crap, Midoriya! You have Recovery Girl's quirk too?! You're a lifesaver! Hey, try it on Kaminari too!"

Izuku did so, and Kaminari even recovered from his mindless stupor, though he seemed a little sleepy after that.

"Hey Midoriya! Didn't you say you were gonna tell us about your quirk?" Ashido said excitedly.

"Yeah, sure, but you guys might want to huddle around the table closer for this…"

* * *

"…And that's pretty much what it does! At least, as much as you need to know what I can do anyway. I don't exactly know the details of how it works myself, since I can't look into my own brain."

"Hey, hey Midoriya! Why don't you give us a demonstration? Like, try Kirishima's quirk!" said Ashido.

"Are you okay with that Kirishima? I don't usually learn someone's quirk unless I have their permission or it's during an emergency…" Izuku asked Kirishima hesitantly.

"Hell yeah dude! Let's see what you can do with it!" Kirishima gladly rolled up his sleeve and presented his arm to Izuku.

"Well… Don't mind if I do then."

 _ **[Analyzing target physiology…]**_

 _ **[Transformation quirk detected; Assimilating…]**_

 _ **[Quirk: Hardening; Assimilation complete]**_

Izuku proceeded to roll up his sleeve too and Hardened his arm, making his skin look like the jagged surface of a rock.

"Huh, this kind of feels like holding my breath, or tensing a muscle." Izuku wondered aloud.

"Yeah! That's exactly how it feels like!" Kirishima nodded excitedly and did the same thing with his quirk.

"Hmm… I can't think of any way around it, your quirk is really straightforward. I can only harden myself to about as much as you do right now if I need to keep using this quirk for a while. The further I push the hardening the faster my stamina would run out." Izuku said as he continued to look at his Hardened arm and flexed it around.

"Whoa, you can figure out that much just by using it once?"

"Yeah, it's part of my own quirk. I usually only have to test out a new quirk once to know how much I can do with it." Izuku then relaxed his arm and rolled down his sleeve. "I think if you focus mostly on improving your stamina and endurance, you could go really far with this quirk of yours."

"Ya think so?! Alright! Thanks for the advice man!"

"Ooh, ooh! My turn!" Ashido raised her hand then eagerly offered it to Izuku.

 _ **[Analyzing target physiology…]**_

 _ **[Emitter quirk detected; Assimilating…]**_

 **Yikes, this looks like a tricky one…**

 _ **[Quirk: Acid; Assimilation complete]**_

"Well? Try using it!" Ashido stared at Izuku in anticipation.

"Umm… I would, but I'd melt off the skin on my palm as soon as I produced the acid."

"Eeh?! How come?!"

"Well, it seems like your quirk is constantly active under your skin. I would guess its level of acidity slowly increased over time, so your skin built up a resistance to it over the years. I have no resistance to it, so it'd just melt right through me unless I make it really dilute, but even then it could still burn my skin a bit. I guess this is one of those exceptions that I'd have trouble using. I can't think of any tips to improve it for now, I'll have to figure it out manually, since I can't experiment with it without hurting myself." Hearing Izuku's explanation, Ashido sat back down with a bummed out expression.

"How 'bout me, Midoriya?!" Kaminari stuck his palm out towards Izuku as soon as Ashido's turn finished.

 **Oh gods, I'm starting to feel like a fortune-teller…**

Izuku proceeded to learn about the quirks of everyone present, and gave out some advice whenever he could. He also acquired the use of Kaminari's Electrification and Sato's Sugar Rush, then tested out those quirks for a bit just to gauge his own limits.

 _ **[Quirk: Electricity; Assimilation complete]**_

 **Huh, so it short circuits the brain at a wattage limit...**

 **Somehow my limit is much higher than what Kaminari says his is, maybe it's got something to do with my mutated nerves?**

 _ **[Insufficient data; Target neural network data comparison required]**_

 **Hmm, I guess I'll never know, but at least it could come in handy...**

 _ **[Quirk: Sugar Rush; Assimilation complete]**_

 **Crap, reduced mental capacity? I doubt I'll ever use this one...**

* * *

After nearly two hours at the stall, most of class 1-A had already left, leaving Izuku with Iida and Yaoyorozu. The three of them were discussing and comparing notes on that morning's English class. More accurately, Iida and Yaoyorozu's notes, as Izuku didn't bother to take any notes for English.

"…and that's how you put the sentence structure in that order."

"That's impressive Midoriya… How are you so proficient in English?" Iida comments as he adjusted his glasses.

"Well… most of the books I like to read are rarely translated into Japanese, even if they are, it's super hard to find those. So I just took the easier route and read the English ones instead. Sometimes those books aren't even translated properly into English so I had to read the originals in Latin."

Iida and Yaoyorozu looked at him as if he was an alien that just landed from outer space. Izuku responded with a deadpan face: "What?"

"You speak of it as if it is a trivial matter for you. Do you realize how difficult it is to learn a new language?" Iida said with a stern look as usual.

"I never really thought of it that way, I just started out by reading two books of the same content but in different languages side by side. Quite literally too, I can read two different pages at the same time. It's how I picked it up." Then Izuku just casually glanced at both of their faces simultaneously with each eye, causing them to stare at him wide-eyed, and quickly dismissing it as another one of his quirk's weird traits. "Same thing with Latin too, except that needed a lot of extra searching on the internet. Having interest helps, I guess?"

"I see, that indeed makes sense, your constant use of the language resulted in your level of fluency today… I shall follow your example to study hard myself!" Iida said as he started to pack up his belongings into his bag. "I thank you both for your guidance today, see you tomorrow!"

As Iida walked away, Izuku went to order one more bowl of ramen from the stall.

"You're still eating?! How are you not full yet?" Yaoyorozu looked at him with incredulity.

"Oh, I just have to store up on a little more energy for my Stockpile quirk."

"Didn't you say the friend you learned that quirk from stores up energy all the time? Why do you still have to eat for it?"

"It's different for me, I have to concentrate on it for it to work, so I might as well use it when I'm getting the most energy. Sure, I could keep storing up energy whenever I'm awake, but it gets a little annoying having to constantly think about it, and I don't need _that_ much power for our school activities anyway. Plus, now that I have your quirk I don't have to worry about gaining weight."

Yaoyorozu had just finished packing up her bag when she seemed to pause in contemplation; instead of leaving, she went to order a small side dish from the stall, and went back to her seat beside Izuku.

"You're one to talk, how come you're still eating too?" said Izuku with a smirk.

"Like you said, right? I don't have to worry about gaining weight either," Yaoyorozu said as she gave Izuku an intimidating stare. "What? Do you _want_ me to leave?"

"N-no, not at all…" Izuku rubbed the back of his neck as he felt his face warming up, and shifted his glance all over the place except on her.

Yaoyorozu tried to suppress her smile at Izuku's reaction by keeping a stern expression and twirled her ponytail bashfully. "Besides, you haven't given me any advice on my quirk yet, like you did for everyone else. And you said you'd treat me, remember?"

"Oh! Sorry, I got a little too distracted earlier. Uhm… let's see, on the amount of objects your quirk can make at once, you're way ahead of me."

"How so? I thought your quirk is able to optimize the use of other quirks like you said?"

"It can, but even by efficiently using my fat cells, I can only make about a third of your maximum limit, because your body has better fat reserves than mine." Izuku replied without a second thought, then he blushed as he just realized what he implied.

Yaoyorozu slapped Izuku on the arm again, though not as hard this time, then she crossed her arms and scowled at him with rosy cheeks.

Izuku scratched his head nervously and continued. "Uh… moving on… Try to make something simple in your hand."

Yaoyorozu held out a palm and Created a small metal cube with rounded edges. Izuku observed the residual glow of her quirk, then he inspected the metal block that she just made. Next, he Created an exact replica in his own palm in an instant.

 _ **[Analyzing target function…]**_

 _ **[Comparing data…]**_

 **Hmm… She's creating it by concentrating on layer by layer…**

 **Instead of the entire thing altogether like I do…**

 **The fact that she can imagine the layers consecutively at that speed is amazing…**

 **But maybe I can help her find a better angle…**

 **Think Izuku, what did the world 'feel' like before you got your quirk?**

 _ **[Analyzing archived memory data…]**_

 _ **[Cross-referencing with present data…]**_

 _ **[Approximate model generated]**_

"Okay, this might seem a little strange to you, but just bear with me. Now, take a smell of the block you just made." Izuku said.

Hesitantly, Yaoyorozu put the metal block to her nose and sniffed it. "It smells… metallic?"

"Remember that smell. Now, take the block and knock it against something, however you like. Listen for the sound it makes when it hits something… the subtle instance of vibrations against your grip… the tiny ringing that resounds at every strike…"

Yaoyorozu held the block to her ear, and slowly tapped it with her nail for about a dozen times with her eyes closed as she followed his instructions.

"Feel the tingling cold of the metal against your skin. Now, take a closer look at it… the sheen of the surface… how the dim neon lights above us shine on it… how the grains on the metal become more obvious at certain angles… where it's rough and smooth at different points… Got it?"

Yaoyorozu studied the block, turning and twisting it between her fingers, taking her time as she did so, then she glanced at him and nodded.

Izuku took the block out of her hand and placed it on the table, then he started to speak in a focused, but gentle voice. "Okay, now think of all the things you just learned about the block, you can close your eyes if you think it helps…"

"…Remember the smell, its sound, its appearance, its feeling against your hand… then think of its molecular structure… Don't concentrate on any single one of them, but let all those vague impressions flow freely in your mind… Let all of them come together on their own, swirling together in a chaotic harmony, into one single idea that represents the very block itself…"

"…now Create it."

A near identical block shimmered into existence in Yaoyorozu's palm, appearing almost as fast as how Izuku made his, and certainly much quicker than how she initially made it.

"Hey, you did it! That's even better than I expected!" Izuku was about to congratulate Yaoyorozu when he noticed her eyes were starting to tear up. "Are you okay? What's wro-"

Yaoyorozu cut off his words as she abruptly smacked her hand over his eyes to cover them. "It's n-nothing, j-just don't look!"

After a few moments that seemed to feel like forever to Izuku, she eventually spoke after recovering her composure. "Sorry… I was just a little overwhelmed. I've been trying for years to improve my Creation speed, but nothing seemed to work no matter how much I studied or how hard I trained… B-but then you came along and just… I…"

Hearing her voice trail off, Izuku opened his eyes and looked at her. Her eyes were still slightly moist as she tried to fan her burning cheeks with a hand, but her restrained joy is unmistakable.

He simply smiled at her and said: "You're welcome."

The rest of their evening at the stall was mostly uneventful, as the two just quietly enjoyed each other's company while they finished their food.

Yaoyorozu broke the silence between them just before they parted ways, with a warm contented smile on her face. "Thanks for inviting me, Midoriya… I had a lot of fun today. I'll see you tomorrow?"

Izuku gave a brisk nod in return. "Have a good night, Yaoyorozu."

* * *

 _The next morning_

Izuku had just arrived to see U.A.'s entrance in view, as he noticed a large crowd gathering in front of the school.

 **Whoa, there's reporters and cameramen from a bunch of mainstream media…**

 **Ah, must be for the news about All Might teaching here…**

 **Oh gods, one of them spotted me!**

 **Quick, think of something!**

Just as Izuku approached the main entrance, reporters started swarming him with microphones and cameras pointed at his face, blabbering out multiple questions in unison. "Young man! What's it like learning from All Might?" "What do you think of All Might's off-screen persona?" "How does it feel seeing All Might in person?"

"Uhm, I don't know, I'm from the business course…"

All the reporters crowding him immediately backed off as if he was contagious after hearing that answer.

 **Heh, suckers.**

* * *

 _Class 1-A, morning class_

Aizawa walked to the teacher's podium carrying a stack of papers. He then placed the documents on the podium and addressed the class. "Good work with yesterday's battle training. I've looked over your grades and evaluations. Surprisingly, all of you did really well, though I have a few comments,"

"Midoriya."

 **Oh, shit.**

 **Is this about that incident with Yaoyorozu yesterday?**

"That way you used my scarf, you learned it from watching old footages of me, didn't you?"

Izuku let out a sigh of relief and answered. "Yes, Aizawa-sensei."

"Those moves are outdated, plenty of openings for enemies to use the scarf against you if they know what to look for. If you want to keep using that scarf as a part of your arsenal, come find me after school, I'll teach you. Now, on to homeroom business…"

"…Today, you'll all be picking a class president."

The whole class immediately sprung to life with raised hands and shouts of students volunteering themselves. "I wanna be president! Lemme do it!" "I wanna be a leader!" "I'd like to do it!"

"Quiet down, everyone!" Iida yelled, then he proceeded to suggest that the class should vote for the decision to make it fair for everyone, though with an elaborate explanation about democracy and elections in typical Iida fashion. "Will you allow this, Sensei?!"

"Do it however you like, just make it quick." Aizawa said as he squirmed into his sleeping bag and laid down in a corner.

* * *

Almost everyone in the class got 1 vote for themselves, Yaoyorozu got 2 votes, and Izuku got 3 votes.

 **Eh?! What?!**

 **Three other people voted for me?!**

Bakugou turned around his seat to look at Izuku with a confused expression. "Deku, I thought you fuckin' hate that leadership stuff. You voted for yourself?"

Izuku replied tensely in a whisper just loud enough for Bakugou to hear. "No, I voted for someone else! How did I even get three?!"

 **Since there are people with more than one vote, that means there are those with none too.**

 **Assuming those with one vote voted for themselves…**

 **Let's see… The zero votes are…**

 **Iida, Uraraka and…**

… **Todoroki? What?**

 **Makes sense for Uraraka and Iida, since I've helped them before…**

… **but Todoroki? We barely know each other.**

 **Ugh, no point dwelling on it. Too many possibilities.**

 **I'll just accept this and move on...**

"Fine… So your president's Midoriya and your vice president is Yaoyorozu…" Aizawa mumbled groggily as he climbed out of his sleeping bag.

* * *

Izuku sat at his usual spot in the cafeteria where class 1-A regularly sits. Beside him was Bakugou, and across the table were Iida and Uraraka. Lunchtime just started and they had only gotten their food moments ago.

"Deku-kun. Why do you look so bummed out?" Uraraka blurted out as Izuku just put down his tray.

"Mm…" Izuku looked at Bakugou while slurping his ramen and made a subtle gesture towards Uraraka, which Bakugou responded by answering: "That's because this lazy fucker hates to do work that he's not interested in."

Izuku growled at his best friend with a look of hostility, which only served to make Bakugou snicker.

"You will do just fine, Midoriya. I believe your decision-making and resourcefulness makes you perfectly suited to lead us all." Iida said as he sipped a spoonful of stew.

"Ah, so you did vote for me. I wonder who the other two were…" Izuku commented as he chewed his noodles with a blank stare.

"Me! Hehe…" Uraraka raised a hand gleefully, a grain of rice seemed to be stuck around her mouth without her knowledge.

"Oh, I guess that leaves Todoroki then, or it could be someone else…"

"He didn't look like the volunteering type to me. Maybe he just picked some random schmuck, and it just happened to be you." Bakugou said with a mocking grin.

Out of the blue, the speakers all over U.A. blared with a screeching siren along with the announcement: " _Security level 3 has been broken. All students, please evacuate in an orderly fashion._ " Chaos instantly started to break out among the students.

"Security level 3?! What does that mean?" Iida yelled at a senior student that scrambled to leave his table.

"It means the school has intruders! I've been here for three years and it's never happened before!"

Almost all the students started to swarm towards the doorways like sardines, pushing against each other like a hysteric mob.

 _ **[Assessing situation…]**_

 **Everyone's just charging for the nearest exit…**

 **We don't even know where the intruder is!**

 **I need more information!**

 _ **[Activating quirk: Zero Gravity]**_

Izuku clapped his hands together to make himself float, and kicked off the ground towards the ceiling over the horde of people. He gracefully maneuvered towards the windows by pushing off from the lamps above, thanks to the hours of practice floating in his house with the quirk.

Through the window, he could see a massive crowd of reporters crammed at the front of the main building, with Aizawa and Present Mic keeping them at bay.

"Hey! Everyone calm down! It's just the press!" Izuku roared at the mob of students from above, but his voice was drowned out by countless cries of panic.

 **Shit! I'm not loud enough!**

 **Someone could get trampled at any moment!**

 _ **[Activating quirk: Hardening]**_

Izuku momentarily Hardened his palms and slammed them together as hard as he could. The resounding _CLANG_ silenced everyone, and drew their attention to the boy hanging onto a window frame near the ceiling.

"Everyone stop panicking! It's just the reporters! There's already teachers on site handling them!" barked Izuku with a commanding tone. "Just keep evacuating according to school instructions, but proceed with caution, we don't want anyone to get hurt!"

Izuku stayed at his vantage point until most of the students had dispersed, then he released his weightlessness. He landed feet first on the floor but wobbled from the Zero Gravity nausea, then someone caught him before he fell.

He turned to see Yaoyorozu supporting him by the arm. "Nicely done, Midoriya."

"Yaoyorozu, you're still here? I saw most of our classmates had already evacuated," said Izuku as he shook his head to recover from his dizziness.

"Well, as vice class president, it's part of my job to ensure your safety too you know. C'mon, let's go join up with the others," said Yaoyorozu as she beamed a smile at him.

* * *

 _12:50pm_

"Now for today's basic hero training. This time, All Might, myself and one other will supervise. Today, we'll be doing rescue training, this is to prepare you for disaster reliefs: from fires to floods," announced Aizawa as he held up a cue card with the word 'RESCUE' on it.

Most of the class started to murmur with excitement when Aizawa silenced them with a glare. "Hey! I'm not done yet…"

Aizawa then activated a handheld remote, and rows of numbered lockers started to protrude from the classroom wall with a metallic hum. "…It's up to each of you whether or not to wear your costumes, as some of them are ill-suited for this sort of activity. The training site is a bit remote, so we'll be going by bus. That's all, get ready."

* * *

 **I felt this chapter was too boring with just the class president voting and the media break-in, so I decided to add some filler and have fun with it while adding more details to Izuku's quirk. I tried to experiment with writing romance (not my strong point) with the interactions between Izuku and Momo, I have no idea what I'm doing, it's all improvised.**

 **As of 27th October 2019, chapters 1 to 12 have been rewritten.**

 **Feel free to leave a review. Thanks for reading!**


	10. Chapter 10: Unforeseen

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from My Hero Academia, nor do I own concepts of any other anime, manga, videogame or TV shows used in this story.

Author's note: This story is simply written for fun, I expect I would make plenty of amateur mistakes.

 **Texts like this** are Izuku's voluntary thoughts from his perspective.

 ** _[Texts like this]_** represents thoughts that comes from his subconscious, where the majority of his quirk manifests. All of Izuku's subconscious thoughts are not actually verbal. To Izuku, they're merely flashes of notions that happen in very short moments. After all, they come from his intuition.

* * *

 **Chapter 10: Unforeseen**

Class 1-A had just departed by bus from U.A.'s main school building after they had just finished changing to their costumes. Most of the class were seated at the middle compartment, with the seats along both sides of the bus facing each other, while a few seated in pairs at the rear section.

Most of the students were passing time chatting about the school emergency that morning, when Kirishima turned to Izuku and said: "Hey, Midoriya! Good job in the cafeteria dude! I never thought of using my quirk like that before!"

Izuku could only chuckle awkwardly at the complement. "Oh, uhm… Thanks?"

Ashido giggled at Izuku's response. "You know… I thought you're a pretty shy guy, but you looked really confident when you started shouting out orders!"

"Well… I actually felt kinda bad yelling at people like that, but I had to do something. Someone was going to get hurt if I didn't act fast." Izuku said apologetically with a shrug.

"I generally say what's on my mind, Midoriya…" Asui said.

"Hmm? What is it, Tsuyu?"

"With that powerful quirk of yours, I think you're going to be the number one hero someday." Asui said to Izuku with a smile.

"Heh, yeah right, Frog-face! I'm the one who's going to be the number one hero." Bakugou snickered as he sat beside Izuku.

Kirishima raised an eyebrow at Bakugou's comment. "But Bakugou, Midoriya can already use your quirk, and many others! How are you going to compete with him?"

"I don't have to, because this idiot doesn't care about fuckin' rankings. Ain't that right, Deku?" Bakugou said with a grin.

"Huh? If you didn't come to U.A. to be the greatest hero, then what else are you planning to do, Midoriya?" Kaminari asked with a look of confusion.

"Well… I'm sure you've heard of this saying: _If quirks and superpowers had not emerged, humanity would be enjoying interstellar travel right now_ ," Izuku started explaining as Bakugou looked at him with a proud smile.

"The entire world has been stagnant in terms of societal progress ever since quirks appeared, we haven't changed much for more than a century, constantly stuck in this unending cycle of heroics and villainy. Plus, most of our technological advancements during this period have mostly been related to hero support, and not much elsewhere. I want to help the world move forward from this. I don't know what I should do to make that a reality yet, but I felt learning about the hero system from the inside is the first step to finding out how to proceed, and what better place to learn it than at U.A.?"

"Assisting the progress of civilization? That sounds like quite a noble cause, I hope you can achieve your vision one day, Midoriya." Iida said with genuine admiration at Izuku's answer.

"I'll not bore you with the details. For now, I'm just focusing on learning how to be a proper hero, it's a dream for the far future anyway." Izuku said as he waved a hand in dismissal.

"Yeah, you wouldn't want him to explain the whole thing to you, trust me. You'd never hear the end of it once you get him started, and the sound of his muttering would haunt your dreams at night." Bakugou added with a mock shudder, with Izuku giving him the side eye.

"Perhaps your lexicon is the equivalent of a steamed turd, therefore inadequate to comprehend the magnitude of his grandiose scheme." Kaminari said with a snobby tone at Bakugou.

"Oh yeah, Mr Vocabulary?! How about I pound you into the fuckin' ground?!" barked Bakugou as he stood up from his seat to lunge at Kaminari, but was stopped by Izuku restraining him.

At one of the back rows sitting beside Uraraka, Yaoyorozu watched the exchange between Bakugou and Kaminari with a look of disapproval. "What a vulgar conversation…"

"Hehe, I think this is pretty fun though!" Uraraka giggled as she continued to watch the banter between her classmates.

"Fortunately for all of us, Midoriya's manners haven't been influenced much by Bakugou…" Yaoyorozu remarked nonchalantly.

"Alright, settle down, all of you! We're here." Aizawa announced as the bus slowed down to a halt.

* * *

"WHOAAAAA!"

"This looks like a theme park!"

Exclamations of awe could be heard from the students of 1-A as they entered the massive dome that housed the training facility.

The Space Hero, Thirteen, was waiting for them just within the entrance, clad in a costume that resembled an astronaut's spacesuit. She greeted the students with a warm reception. "Welcome to the Unforeseen Simulation Joint! This facility is of my own design!"

Aizawa looked around the area and walked up to Thirteen. "Thirteen. Where's All Might? I thought he was supposed to meet us here."

"Ah, about that…" Thirteen replied, then she continued in a whisper that Izuku couldn't hear, as she put up three fingers for Aizawa.

 **Three?**

 **Hmm... I can't see what she's saying through her helmet...**

 **Does that mean All Might's three hour limit?**

 **Maybe he's reached his limit today?**

"Hmm, so be it. Let's get started." Aizawa stated as he turned around to face the class, standing alongside Thirteen.

"Now then, as I'm sure many of you are aware…" Thirteen proceeded to make a speech about the dangers of quirks, and how careful use of it is absolutely necessary in a hero's line of work.

* * *

"…I hope all of you can leave here today with the understanding that you're meant to help people with your powers and save lives. That is all! Thank you for listening!" said Thirteen as she ended her speech with a bow, and all the students clapped their hands in excitement.

 _ **[WARNING: Anomaly detected]**_

Izuku felt goosebumps throughout his entire body as his attention was immediately drawn to the fountain at the central plaza a distance away, then he yelled and pointed towards a purple mist that had just fizzled into existence. "SENSEI!"

"EVERYONE HUDDLE UP AND DON'T MOVE!" Aizawa yelled with a voice of urgency.

In the distance, dozens of people emerged from the expanding purple mist, and more than half of the figures could been seen carrying weapons on their person.

"What the hell is that? Are those training targets, like the entrance exam?" Kirishima said as he squinted at the direction of the commotion.

"STAY WHERE YOU ARE! THOSE ARE VILLAINS!" barked Aizawa as he put on his goggles. "Thirteen! Begin evacuating the students!"

 _ **[Assessing situation…]**_

 **The lights in the dome are all shut off…**

 **And the intruder alarm isn't going off, that means its disabled too** **…**

 **These guys aren't just common thugs, it's an organized assault!**

 _ **[Analyzing optimal course of action…]**_

 **We need to call for backup, Aizawa-sensei and Thirteen won't be able to hold them off for long!**

"Kaminari! Signal the school for help with your transceiver!" Izuku shouted.

"O-okay!" Kaminari put a hand to the gadget on his ear and concentrated, then he looked at Izuku and shook his head. "It's not working, I can't get a signal out!"

"One of these villains must be an electric-type that's causing the interference." Aizawa said as he readied his alloy scarf for combat and billowed it around him. "Get going, all of you! I'll hold them off!"

"Everyone, let's go!" Thirteen exclaimed as she ushered the students towards the entrance.

Izuku watched as Aizawa leaped towards the large group of villains and skillfully dispatched them in close combat, taking on multiple opponents easily with his scarf.

 _ **[Updating combat routine data…]**_

 **Huh… So that's how I should pull the scarf when-**

"Midoriya, we have to go!" Iida yelled at Izuku who was staring at Aizawa's fight.

"Afraid I can't allow you to leave…" said a disembodied voice as a purple mist with two glowing eyes appeared in their way in an instant, halting the escaping group in their tracks. "Greetings. We are the League of Villains. Forgive our audacity, but today, we've come here to end the life…"

"…of All Might, the Symbol of Peace."

 **Crap! I have to do something!**

 _ **[Analyzing target…;**_ _ **Structural weakness found]**_

 **This guy's intangible?! Could be an effect of his quirk…**

 **But there's a small part of him that's wearing that weird plate armor…**

 **Maybe he has a solid body, but he's using that mist to protect it?**

 _ **[Assessing situation…]**_

 **A few of us can hit that target, however…**

 **The best quirk to deal with him here is Thirteen's, I can already sense her ready to-**

 _ **[ALERT: Target obstruction imminent]**_

 **Huh?!** **I have to stop those two from getting in Thirteen's way!**

 _ **[Activating quirk: Lumber]**_

Izuku realized just in time that Bakugou and Kirishima were about to leap into action, so he reached out and coiled tree trunks around their waist, stopping them before they could step in front of the Space Hero. "Now, Thirteen!"

"Quick thinking, young man!" Thirteen immediately activated her Black Hole quirk through her finger, rapidly sucking in the purple mist.

The purple mist retaliated by opening another portal behind Thirteen, causing her to shred the back portion of her own costume into oblivion. The Space Hero slumped to the ground unconscious from the shock of the damage, causing Ashido to scream in horror. "Thirteen! No!"

 **Fuck! I didn't think that teleport quirk could work like that!**

 **The fastest way to get help now would be…**

"Run, Iida, RUN! We'll distract him!" Izuku shouted as he started to charge an Electrified Air Cannon on his arm, prompting Iida to sprint towards the door while avoiding the purple mist. Bakugou and Kirishima also lunged towards the villain after hearing Izuku's command.

"I DON'T THINK SO!" echoed the villain's voice as his misty body spread out to envelop all of the students at once. "BEGONE!"

Iida, being the one nearest to the villain and running towards the door, was teleported away first, along with Bakugou and Kirishima who were within close proximity of him.

Shoji, with his Dupli-arms, used his wide reach to protect Ashido, Sero, Uraraka and Thirteen's unconscious body from the mist.

After that, Izuku's vision was shrouded by the purple smog as he lost sight of everyone else.

* * *

A sense of vertigo filled Izuku's mind as he opened his eyes to find himself plunging into a large lake.

 **Water?! I'm at the Flood Zone!**

 **That mist guy must've scattered everyone across the zones to reduce our numbers!**

He had just barely caught the vague movements of a silhouette from the corner of his eye, when it abruptly filled his entire field of vision at a frightening speed; a humanoid with a shark-like face, it's massive jaw agape with razor sharp teeth and blood red gums.

 **AAARGH SHARK WHAT THE FUCK?!**

 _ **[Advanced combat protocols initiated]**_

 _ **[All quirks ready to deploy]**_

Izuku reflexively Hardened his arm to meet the massive bite, he felt his assailant's teeth crack and break against his skin as it howled in pain.

 **Whoa, Kirishima's quirk came in handy, that barely even scratched me!**

"Midoriya!" Just as Izuku was about to wind up another Hardened fist to strike the villain, Asui swam to his side and kicked the villain away with her powerful frog-like legs, then she pulled him towards the surface with her extended tongue. Within moments, Izuku was tossed onto the deck of a yacht along with Mineta, then she joined them by climbing up the ship's hull.

"Thanks, Tsuyu..." Izuku said as he coughed up some water.

"No problem, ribbit. But we seem to be in trouble here, Midoriya."

"Yeah, I didn't hear it wrong, did I? They said they're here to kill All Might?"

"B-but there no way, right? He'll thrash 'em once he gets here!" said Mineta Minoru, a short boy with grape like growths on his head.

Izuku shook his head as he replied: "We don't know that for sure. If they organized an operation this big they must have a way to kill him."

"I agree, ribbit. Otherwise, why come all this way just to get beaten up?"

A harsh voice could be heard from the water as the shark villain resurfaced, accompanied by many other figures. "Come back here, you brats! I'll kill you all!"

Mineta started screaming in panic at the sight of the villains. "There's a whole school of them! We're gonna dieeeeee!"

 _ **[Analyzing targets…]**_

 _ **[Assessing situation…]**_

 **These guys are all suited for aquatic maneuvers…**

 **That means they knew about USJ's layout…**

 **But they teleported Asui here, who's perfect in this environment…**

 **So it's likely that they don't know about our quirks…**

 _ **[Analyzing optimal course of action…]**_

Asui and Mineta watched as Izuku scanned the villains with a quick glance and ducked back behind the railing, then his eyes started rapidly darting about in a disturbing manner.

"Mi-Midoriya? Are you okay?" Asui said with a growing concern in her voice.

Izuku stopped his erratic gaze and focused on Asui. "Yeah. I think I might know get us out of this mess."

"How can we possibly fight, dumbass?! These guys might be even tough enough to kill All Might!" Mineta continued to shout frantically.

"Yes, we can. Or more specifically, _I can_. They don't know about our quirks, which means they sure as hell don't know what I'm capable of either. Fortunately I have something that's perfect for this situation. Here's what we'll do; but before that, just to keep our options open, tell me about your quirk Mineta…"

* * *

"Okay, looks like we're still going with plan A. Ready? On my signal…"

Izuku stepped over the railing and leaped towards the water with a hysterical scream. "AAAAH! I don't wanna die!"

 **Pretend to panic like Mineta, lure them in like shark bait!**

As soon as Izuku hit the water, he started to slowly sink while he flailed his limbs around frantically. The moment she heard Izuku's splash, Asui carried Mineta and leaped to the highest roof of the boat which was made of an insulated plastic.

Izuku gradually bubbled out air underwater while looking about, he could see the villains had fallen for his ruse and were diving straight for him.

With a devious smile, he unleashed Electricity through his entire body and the Flood Zone was enveloped in a flashing yellow light. Moments later, the villains' bodies floated up to the surface one by one. He then lashed out Lumber to round up all the villains together in a tight bundle, and made sure their heads were above the surface while the wood kept them afloat.

 **They're gonna be out cold for a while…**

 **Good thing it didn't take much Electricity to knock them out underwater** **…**

Izuku then floated to the surface by temporarily transforming both his arms into wood. Asui then scooped him up with her tongue, and bounded away in a mighty leap with Mineta in her arms.

* * *

The three classmates trudged through shallow water towards the shore as Izuku noticed Aizawa was still in combat near the central plaza.

"What should we do now?" Asui asked as she dragged Mineta by his scarf.

"For now, getting help is our top priority. I think I saw Iida disappear the same time as Kacchan and Kirishima. I've been watching the stairway to the entrance for a while, no sign of any of them. I think we should assume that he hasn't been able to escape yet." Izuku said as he wrung out water from his clothes. "We should try to avoid the plaza by skirting around the shoreline, and head for the exit."

"Alright, ribbit. But it looks like Aizawa-sensei is still fighting a large number of villains over there…"

"Aizawa-sensei jumped in to keep them occupied, we have to make use of the time he bought for us. There's no telling how long he can hold out, too many variables for my quirk to predict the outcome."

"Your quirk? What are you planning, Midoriya? Don't do anything stupid…" said Mineta as he looked at Izuku nervously.

"I'm not saying we should dive into the fight to help him, but maybe we can watch for openings to lighten Sensei's load for a bit. As far as I can tell most of the villains here are just common thugs, there's only about three or four of them that could be serious trouble. Now let's start moving…"

Just as Izuku finished his sentence, the blue-haired slender villain that was covered in numerous detached hands lunged for Aizawa. And after trading a few blows, Aizawa's arm could be seen bleeding and hanging limp at his side.

"Move, move! We have to go get help…" Izuku said hurriedly with a tense whisper, careful not to let his voice be heard by the villains in the distance.

Aizawa's movements were slowing down significantly, yet he was still putting up an impressive fight with a crippled arm. Just as Aizawa knocked out most of the thugs in the plaza, a figure approached him from the back, a towering muscular figure almost two meters tall with pitch-black skin.

It took everything out of Izuku to ignore his impulse to warn Aizawa, otherwise he could risk drawing attention to his friends. He could only watch helplessly as the giant villain slammed Aizawa into the ground, and broke one of his arms as easily as snapping a twig.

At what seemed to be the worst timing ever, Izuku also spotted Bakugou, Kirishima and Iida exiting the concrete jungle of the Collapsed Zone off in the distance, right next to the entrance stairway.

 _ **[Assessing situation…]**_

 **That giant villain could easily kill Aizawa-sensei at any moment, he's most likely their weapon against All Might…**

 **And I can see Iida over there, he can escape to get help if they're not spotted…**

 **But how do I fight something that could kill the number one hero** **…** **?**

 **Do I even stand a chance** **…** **?**

 ** _[Insufficient data]_**

 **I can't see any other options… I have to do this… For everyone's sake…**

 **Even for a few seconds, I have to distract the villains right now, or we're all going to die here…**

Clenching his trembling fists to steel himself, Izuku turned to Asui with a determined expression. "Tsuyu… take Mineta and escape from the far side of the lake, avoid the main plaza no matter what… I'm going to make sure those villains don't notice Iida, he's the best chance we have of getting backup. The others may not be as lucky as us, any delays could be deadly."

Mineta tried to object with a strained whisper. "B-but you'll die, Midoriya! Can't you just-"

"I'll be fine, it's going to be okay." Izuku gave them both a reassuring smile, his body language betraying no hint of the primal fear roiling within him. "Now go."

"Midoriya. Thank you…" Asui said with a nod as she made a quiet splash back into the water with Mineta, and swam swiftly across the lake's surface. As soon as they were a safe distance away, Izuku started running towards Aizawa.

* * *

"HEY!"

Electricity surged and crackled around Izuku's arms as he infused the lightning into Air Cannon shots, and blasted them towards the remaining villains. The orbs of supercharged plasma electrocuted and knocked out the few remaining thugs who were watching Aizawa getting beaten up; but they barely made the giant villain flinch, while the slender figure beside the large brute dodged the attacks easily.

 **Damn, Plasma Cannon didn't work on those two** **…**

 **I was right, those two are serious threats** **…**

 **Might need a bit more juice to knock the big guy out…**

 _ **[Infusing Stockpile energy…]**_

Green sparks mixed into the vortex of air as a green glowing orb started to coalesce on Izuku's left palm, but right before he could shoot, the blue haired villain rushed towards him and grabbed his firing arm. It made his attack go wide and destroyed half of the central fountain in a burst of green light.

A spine-chilling voice came from the face behind a detached hand that reeked of embalming fluid: "Well, well… What do we have here? That's quite a flashy quirk you have… Where have I seen it before?"

Izuku released a burst of Electricity from his other arm to shock the villain, but his counterattack went wide as the villain retreated with a maniacal cackle.

 **He touched me, but I couldn't sense anything from him?**

 _ **[WARNING: CRITICAL TRAUMA]**_

Izuku moved to realign another Plasma Cannon shot at the other villain, then he realized in horror that his left arm had withered away at the elbow, with a huge chunk of flesh and bone missing, and what remained of his arm dangled on a few brittle strips of tendons and muscles.

 **FUCK! He decays things on contact?!**

 **My nerves couldn't even fire off a signal before they got disintegrated!**

"Oh my, no screaming? You're a tough little hero, aren't ya? I may have gripped a little too hard there, it's your own fault for interfering with a boss fight like that…" The blue haired villain said with a deranged reptilian wheeze. "Hmm, no matter… Since you want to fight the boss so badly, I'll let you have a taste too. Nomu, c'mere and show this little noob how you fought Eraserhead, but give him a handicap, will ya?"

 **Okay, calm down…**

 **I know the damage is already there…**

 **Don't let the pain overwhelm me…**

Despite his injury, Izuku managed to keep his cool after taking a few deep breaths. He watched as the large villain released its grip of Aizawa's now shattered arm, and slowly walked towards him. At this angle, Izuku could now see that the villain's brain was completely exposed with the top of its skull missing, and lifeless eyes poked out from its brain where the eye sockets should be.

 **What the fuck is that thing?!**

 **Shit, I wasted the entire Stockpile into that last shot too…**

 **Can't use Flak Cannon yet,** **I have to lure that thing away from Aizawa-sensei!**

With his remaining arm, Izuku fired multiple Plasma Cannon attacks at the villain named Nomu. The resulting blasts hit dead center on Nomu's chest and charred some of its skin, yet the burns healed up within a matter of seconds. The impacts from the attacks barely affected it, merely causing ripples across its skin.

 **What?!**

 **How the hell am I supposed to damage this guy?!**

"Oh, did I mention that he has super regeneration and shock absorption? He's designed to withstand All Might's attacks, try anything you like, he'll just heal back up." said the slender villain with a sinister chuckle.

 **Two quirks?! What the hell? How?!**

 **Unless…**

"Oh yeah? How about you then!" Izuku then fired a barrage of Flak Cannon shots at the slender villain, but the Nomu moved with blinding speed to intercept the projectiles, protecting its master from harm. This time the explosions burned and ripped apart a large portion of flesh in its stomach, yet the wounds were insignificant against its accelerated healing.

"What?! That's completely different than what you did before!" The slender villain exclaimed with a shrill as he started to scratch his neck in agitation. "No… I remember now! I've seen Sensei use his quirks like that! That isn't just one quirk, is it?! Get him, Nomu! No more games!"

Before Izuku could even blink, an immense force smashed his head backwards into the ground. He felt the entire world crack and shatter, a burst of excruciating pain radiated from his skull as he let out a voiceless scream.

"What the hell are you?! Huh?! You can't have a quirk like Sensei's! That's impossible!" The slender villain approached closer, his hoarse voice laced with madness and disbelief. "Nomu, hold him up! I want to have a better look at him!"

Izuku felt the massive hand on his head reach around his waist, and it squeezed him with an inhuman strength as it lifted him up. He reflexively Hardened his entire body, but even so, the pressure still cracked his armored skin and his eyes slowly became bloodshot. Then, he unleashed every ounce of Electricity he had within him just enough to not overload his brain, yet his efforts were insignificant against this titanic foe.

 **That barely even tickled it?!**

 _ **[Analyzing target physiology…]**_

 **This thing's as tough as All Might! But how?!**

 _ **[Mutation quirks detected: 4; Data acquisition complete]**_

 **He has super-strength and super-speed quirks too?!**

The Nomu creature held up Izuku in front of its face as its master walked up to its side. "A brat like you doesn't deserve that power! You're All Might's disciple, aren't you?! He's raising you to rival Sensei!" The man-child shrieked with a hysteric tone as he continuously scratched his neck to the point of drawing blood.

 **Sensei? He could be talking about All For One…**

 **No time to find out, I have to get away from this monster!**

 _ **[Analyzing optimal course of action…]**_

 **Can't use Zero Gravity, it might float off into another zone and hurt someone else, I have to keep it here!**

 **My lungs are getting crushed** **…** **I can't take in enough air for Fire Breath** **…**

 **I can't risk harming my one remaining arm with Acid either…**

 **Anything weaker than Explosion isn't going to make a dent in it…**

 ** _[Structural weakness detected]_**

 _ **[Assessment: Target exposed neural network]**_

 **Maybe I can at least knock it out long enough to get away…**

Izuku reached out his uninjured arm towards the Nomu's exposed brain with every ounce of remaining strength he had, ready to splatter it with an Explosion. However, the moment his hand made contact, he was overwhelmed by an agonizing headache.

 _ **[NEURAL NETWORK DATAMASS DETECTED]**_

 _ **[INTERPRETING DATAMASS…]**_

 **What…** **happening…**

 **can't…**

 **…** **think…**

From the Nomu's eyes, if it had any sentient thought at all, it merely saw Izuku reach out a trembling hand that brushed across the top of its head, then the boy started twitching uncontrollably with his eyes rolled back as if he was having a seizure.

Izuku vaguely caught a glimpse of the purple fog villain appearing before slipping into a helpless stupor. The headache felt like it lasted an eternity as Izuku could barely perceive anything through the pain.

"Crush him! You're just an inferior piece of filth! You will never be as great as Sensei, you hear me?!" The slender villain's screams were reaching the point of mania as he visibly trembled in his tantrum.

The Nomu tightened its powerful grip around Izuku's body, squashing his entire Hardened torso like a crumpled can. A gush of crimson gurgled from his mouth, and his body went limp in an instant.

 _ **[INTERPRETING DATAMASS…]**_

 _ **[OPERATOR CONDITION CRITICAL; REROUTING ALL RESOURCES TO CURRENT TASK…]**_

 **I can't… die here…**

 _ **[PRIMARY QUIRK FACTOR MECHANISMS FOUND]**_

 _ **[INTEGRATING DATA…]**_

"Pulverize him with everything you've got! All Might thinks he can raise a hero that can match Sensei?! I want him to see how much of a failure he is!" The Nomu then slammed Izuku into the ground again, deepening the shallow crater that his head had smashed into previously, then it repeatedly pummeled his Hardened body further into the concrete with all its might.

 **I hope Asui and Mineta got away…**

 **Iida, Kirishima, Kacchan… And everyone else too** **…**

 **Mom… Dad** **… I'm sorry** **…**

 **I tried** **…**

 **…** **my best…**

 _ **[PRIMARY QUIRK FACTOR DATA INTEGRATED]**_

 _ **[Mutation quirks: Shock Absorption, Super Regeneration, Amplify Strength, Amplify Speed**_ **…** _ **]**_

 _ **[ASSIMILATION COMPLETE]**_

* * *

 **I had the USJ arc drafted since before I wrote chapter one, it's the main reason why I put the 'OP Izuku' label on this fic. I've also taken some liberties on the fact that the Nomu has 4 other different DNAs in its body, but it's never really stated what other quirks it had.**

 **As of 27th October 2019, chapters 1 to 12 have been rewritten.**

 **Feel free to leave a review. Thanks for reading!**


	11. Chapter 11: Metamorphosis

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from My Hero Academia, nor do I own concepts of any other anime, manga, videogame or TV shows used in this story.

Author's note: Special thanks to the writers of the game _Shadowrun: Dragonfall_ for directly inspiring a section of this chapter. There will be a few dark moments in this chapter, be warned. Now, time to earn that Mature rating.

This story is simply written for fun, I expect I would make plenty of amateur mistakes.

 **Texts like this** are Izuku's voluntary thoughts from his perspective.

 ** _[Texts like this]_** represents thoughts that comes from his subconscious, where the majority of his quirk manifests. All of Izuku's subconscious thoughts are not actually verbal. To Izuku, they're merely flashes of notions that happen in very short moments. After all, they come from his intuition.

* * *

 **Chapter 11: Metamorphosis**

 _Moments ago_

Bakugou, Kirishima and Iida had just managed to fight their way out of the Collapsed Zone. As they were approaching the stairwell, they saw Izuku yelling in the distance, facing off against the remaining villains who had surrounded an unconscious Aizawa.

"Hey, that's Midoriya! We have to help hi-" Kirishima said as Bakugou quickly put a hand to his mouth.

"Wait, we have to get Iida out of here first. I'm pretty sure he can see us from that angle, he's buying us time; he wouldn't do something that stupid unless he had a solid reason. We can't risk drawing the villain's attention here until Iida makes it out." Bakugou tried to state his words in a calm whisper, but his concerned expression did little to hide his intent.

"But someone else could already have been on their way! I can't just stand here and watch my friend get killed!" Kirishima exclaimed in a tense whisper.

"Even if someone had already escaped I can still outrun them to call for help faster. We're three kilometers away from school." Iida added to Bakugou's point.

"Iida's right, he's the fastest out of our entire class, you two should start running. I'll stay down here in case Deku needs help." said Bakugou as he laid low near the bodies of a few unconscious villains.

"Okay, I'll cover Iida until he gets out, will be back as soon as possible." Kirishima whispered a reply, then he started to run up the long flight of stairs alongside Iida.

*BAM*

The sound of smashed concrete made Bakugou's stomach drop in fear of Izuku's safety. He turned to see the villain easily picking up the green-haired boy from the ground, and gruesomely squeezed the life out of him. It took everything out of Bakugou to restrain himself from charging in and risk drawing the villains' attention, as Iida was only halfway up the stairs at this point.

"No no no don't you fucking dare die on me…" Bakugou muttered under his breath with gritted teeth.

* * *

The purple fog villain from the entrance earlier materialized beside the slender villain and spoke with an urgent voice. "Shigaraki Tomura. We seem to have a problem."

"What is it, Kurogiri?! I'm in the middle of something!" The slender villain said as he kept scratching his bloodied neck.

"I couldn't warp away some of the students, and… one of them escaped."

Shigaraki started to claw his neck with increased intensity as he growled with a grating voice. "Arhhhh! We're not leaving empty handed! Crush him, Nomu!..."

* * *

The last thing Izuku remembered seeing was the Nomu pummeling him into the ground.

And then, silence. Deafening silence.

It was not just the lack of sound, but the complete absence of any sensation.

Pitch black, no colour in sight. There was no up, nor down; only the infinite expanse of the void.

 **Is this… how it feels to die?**

Then came the flood of white noise, incomprehensible. A torrent of information that overwhelmed his entire being, a stark contrast to the silence before.

 **Where am I?**

 _ **[Analyzing neural datamass…]**_

 _ **[Error: Severe data corruption detected]**_

 **Everything here feels so… lifeless…**

 **These… "not-memories" all feel wrong. Very wrong…**

 **I can barely feel the echoes of what they once were…**

 **It's like something forcefully replaced them with-**

 _ **[Primary quirk factor mechanisms found]**_

 _ **[Complete mutation growth framework generated; Developmental period bypass available]**_

 _ **[Neural network analysis framework optimized; Analysis complete]**_

 **Wait, this is that Nomu guy's brain!**

 **How is this person even still ali-**

 _ **[Alert: Anomaly detected]**_

In the hollow depths of the Nomu's psyche, Izuku's attention was drawn into something that shivered him to his core, a gaping wound in the broken mind of the abomination. As the darkness drew closer, he noticed a dim glimmer of colour from within.

Somehow, buried under the mountain of mangled memories and disfigured thoughts, there's a very small part of this thing that was still capable of thinking. Of feeling.

And that faint, sentient speck was shrieking in pain.

Horrified, Izuku's mind tried to back away just as a voice echoed through his head. A singular thought laced with raw agony and torment. It was a desperate message from a shattered mind that had been stripped of its body and identity, but was still very much alive.

 _"KILL ME"_

* * *

 _ **[OPERATOR CONDITION CRITICAL]**_

 _ **[Prioritizing Operator survival**_ _ **…**_ _ **; System override: Activating all mutations…]**_

Emerging from his brief trance that felt like forever, Izuku opened his eyes to a rush of sensations as his consciousness rapidly returned.

Right above him, the Nomu continued to punch and slam its fists onto his body. His Hardening had faded away moments ago, his flesh full of tears and rips after it had cracked under the villain's blows. On top of that, he was completely caked in a muddy mixture of his own blood and concrete dust.

A new wave of pain hit him like a truck as the combined injuries of his crushed torso, mutilated skin and torn arm registered all at once. But this time, Izuku didn't flinch.

This was nothing compared to what the Nomu was going through.

Immediately, Izuku felt every cell in his body squirm and wriggle as his shredded skin weaved itself back together, his mangled torso and torn arm regaining their shapes with the creaking of bones, all while the organs underneath repaired themselves at an unnatural pace.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!"

 **That's Kacchan's voice!**

Amidst the flurry of blows, Izuku could barely hear Bakugou's Explosions somewhere behind the Nomu, then a searing inferno briefly blasted over the crater as the Nomu's upper body was completely charred.

The Nomu shrugged off the injury and increased its assault on Izuku, accelerating its punches to an intensity that could rival All Might's. However, the sounds of the impacts are only getting duller with each strike.

Izuku grit his teeth and tried to rise to his feet, but the sheer force of the punches were keeping him down.

"KACCHAN!" Izuku tried to scream from within the crater, but his voice was drowned out by the thunderous barrage above him.

 _ **[Analyzing optimal course-**_

The sound of a chill breeze and the crackling of ice glaciers interrupted Izuku's thoughts as frost enveloped the Nomu's entire body, leaving only its head exposed. Caught off-guard, the Nomu stopped its attacks and gaped at the ice creeping up along its body.

Seizing the initiative, Izuku tried to hop out of his shallow crater towards the commotion. The force of the jump caught him by surprise, as he hurtled uncontrollably through the air towards the clash between Bakugou, Todoroki and the two other villains.

Then, to his dismay, he landed face first right in front of Shigaraki.

Before the others could realize what just happened, Shigaraki lunged down towards Izuku as he screamed in disbelief. "What?! That's impossible! You should be dead!"

 **I would be, if it wasn't for all those quirks you forced into that Nomu, you sick fuck…**

Izuku raised an arm to block Shigaraki's palm, and the villain gripped hard as soon as he made contact. Izuku then reflexively thrust out an Air Cannon shot with his other hand, right at Shigaraki's midsection.

This time, Izuku didn't compress it like he usually did out of haste, yet the burst of air resulted in a massive gust that launched the villain towards the lake behind him.

"Shigaraki!" Kurogiri cried out as he teleported to the Flood Zone in a swirl of his purple smog.

 **Whoa! I just wanted to knock him off balance…**

 **I didn't think my new strength would boost Air Cannon this much…**

Izuku then glanced at his partially disintegrated forearm as it healed in seconds.

 _ **[Analyzing event data…]**_

 **Looks like Regeneration isn't immune to his decaying…**

 **I still couldn't get a good read on that quirk…**

 **But now I'm pretty sure the rotting begins only after all five of his fingers touch…**

 **Well, no point trying to learn his quirk then…**

 **Same goes for that smoke guy, since he's basically intangible…**

"Deku?! What the fuck! You're alive?! I saw you get pulverized!" Bakugou rushed to Izuku's side and anxiously examined him for any injuries.

Todoroki was baffled at Izuku's condition too. Seeing as the class president of 1-A was fully covered in dirt and gore, yet he seemed relatively unscathed under all that grime, even after getting brutally beaten by a villain that supposedly could kill All Might.

"I'm fine, Kacchan. Go grab Aizawa-sensei and get out of here! I can handle them!" urged Izuku as he rose to his feet, but the stubborn blonde was not showing any intentions of backing off.

"I'm not fucking leaving you! How the hell are you going to fight something like that alone?!"

"Bakugou's right, Midoriya. We have to work together until All Might arrives." Todoroki added with a deadpan expression.

"No time to argue! Just go!" Izuku said as he grabbed both Bakugou and Todoroki by their waists, and carried them to Aizawa's unconscious body at full speed. He then lost his balance while trying to decelerate and caused the three of them to tumble to the ground. "Agh, crap! Sorry!"

 _ **[Optimizing…; Comparing performance data…]**_

 **Okay, I'm starting to get used to this now…**

 **Looks like I only have about 20% of that Nomu guy's strength and speed…**

 **Probably because I don't have his levels of muscle growth…**

 _ **[Analyzing optimal course of action…]**_

"Whuh?! Did you-" Bakugou mumbled as he and Todoroki both scrambled to their feet from the sudden disorientation.

"Save it for later! You two get Sensei out of here!" Izuku quickly went to Aizawa and applied Heal onto his injuries, then he moved to briefly grab Todoroki's right hand. "Wait, I'm going to need your ice quirk for this, sorry! Okay, now go!"

 _ **[Quirk: Frost; Assimilation complete]**_

"Argh, fine! You better not fucking die again, ya hear me!" Bakugou yelled with gritted teeth as he and Todoroki carried Aizawa towards the stairs.

"Don't worry, Kacchan. I won't. I just have something I have to go take care of."

* * *

Izuku walked back towards the Nomu. It remained where it was at a distance, laying on the ground in a rubble of broken ice; its head and torso were still intact, while all its other limbs had broken off from severe frostbite. But Izuku knew it would recover from it, just as he himself would.

And Izuku knew its pain as well. All too well.

The pain of having its body and mind robbed away, forcefully replaced by something unnatural.

The pain of losing all of its memories, reduced into an empty, obedient drone.

The pain of being trapped with no sense of time, not knowing when the torment will end.

 **Whoever you were, I'm sorry this has happened to you…**

 **Your memories are completely erased, no amount of regeneration will bring them back…**

 **I wish there was a way to heal you…**

 **Maybe All For One knows how, but I doubt he would ever allow that…**

 **But I won't just walk away after knowing the suffering you're going through…**

As tears started to well up in his eyes, Izuku walked with a calm conviction towards the Nomu, mentally preparing himself for what he was about to do.

Now with its limbs fully regenerated, it dashed towards the green-haired boy to carry out its last command.

Izuku couldn't perceive its lightning speed, but he expected the outcome. The Nomu was created to shrug off impacts dealt at strengths equal to the number one hero. And now, so can he.

The almighty punch struck Izuku's face and torso head-on, creating a shockwave that reverberated across the entire plaza. The hurricane-like wind caused the trees nearby to bend in submission, while the neighbouring lake rippled with violent waves.

And the boy stumbled half a step backwards.

Sparing no hesitation, Izuku grabbed the massive fist with both hands, and unleashed Frost across the Nomu just like Todoroki did.

 _ **[Scanning target…; Structural weakness found]**_

Then, Izuku jabbed once in each of its frozen arms and legs with a fluid grace, breaking them off easily with his enhanced strength as it fell to the ground limbless once more.

Izuku stood over its head, two wet lines now trailing down from his eyes as he met the Nomu's lifeless gaze.

"Everything will be over soon, I heard your message. I'm going to take away your pain now." Izuku said in a gentle voice as a puff of cold vapour escaped from his breath.

The Nomu groaned, its sound a cross between a beastial growl and a harrowing cry of misery. Was it a meaningless primal response? Or an acknowledgement of gratitude? Izuku would never know.

He knelt down and put a hand over the Nomu's exposed brain, then he released a spray of Acid so corrosive it melted a hole through the centre of his palm. The liquid rapidly dissolved through all of the brain tissue, melted away the top portion of the Nomu's skull, and even burned a small crater in the concrete underneath.

Izuku's palm Regenerated, but the Nomu did not. Whatever abomination that Shigaraki brought with him to USJ was no more.

*BAM*

Izuku turned to see the facility's massive doors being blown open as a booming voice echoed throughout the plaza. "Have no fear, students…"

"…BECAUSE I AM HERE!"

* * *

 **As of 27th October 2019, chapters 1 to 12 have been rewritten.**

 **Feel free to leave a review, thanks for reading!**


	12. Chapter 12: Aftermath

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from My Hero Academia, nor do I own concepts of any other anime, manga, videogame or TV shows used in this story.

Author's note: This story is simply written for fun, I expect I would make plenty of amateur mistakes.

 **Texts like this** are Izuku's voluntary thoughts from his perspective.

 ** _[Texts like this]_** represents thoughts that comes from his subconscious, where the majority of his quirk manifests. All of Izuku's subconscious thoughts are not actually verbal. To Izuku, they're merely flashes of notions that happen in very short moments. After all, they come from his intuition.

* * *

 **Chapter 12: Aftermath**

"All Might-sensei!" The students near the USJ entrance cried out.

To the number one hero's dismay, their expressions were a mix of anxiety and confusion instead of relief. His rage briefly turned into a sudden dread, as that response to his arrival usually meant he was too late to the scene.

"Is everyone alright?!" All Might responded with a worried voice.

"S-sensei! Aizawa-sensei got really beat up! B-but Midoriya h-he…" Ashido stuttered through her sniffles and teary eyes, as she pointed towards the center of the plaza, where one lone figure remained standing among a field of unconscious bodies. Sparing no hesitation, All Might leaped down the stairs towards the figure at the center of the clearing.

"Young Midoriya! Hold on! I'll get you to-" The hero's words ended abruptly as soon as he was close enough to take in the sight of the Nomu's body, which lay at the feet of the green haired boy covered in blood and grime.

"No… not yet… I can still stand… There's still two villains at the Flood Zone over there… Their leader…" mumbled Izuku with a ragged breath as he looked at All Might with tired eyes.

 _ **[Warning: Energy levels critical]**_

 **Shit… looks like I'm reaching my limit…**

 **Everything's starting to look blurry…**

By the shoreline of the Flood Zone, Shigaraki and Kurogiri appeared from a purple portal along with a splash of water around them. The soaked villain mastermind scrambled frantically towards a small object in front of him, a preserved severed hand that fell off from his face when Izuku blasted him away. "No… not like this… I'm sorry, father… This wasn't supposed to be like this!"

As Shigaraki delicately latched the hand back onto his face, he glared at All Might and Izuku through the slits of his drenched hair, all while clawing at his neck where he had scratched the skin raw. "You cheated! How dare you do that to my Nomu!"

"Shigaraki, we can't fight him without Nomu! We have to go! NOW!" Kurogiri interjected in a hurry as his purple smog expanded to envelop them both.

"All Might! You think a disciple with a quirk like Sensei's will make a difference?! I may have failed here, Symbol of Peace… but this isn't over! The next time we meet, you're dead!" The blue-haired villain screamed with a guttural rage before he faded into a shrinking portal.

"Stop! You're not getting away!" yelled All Might as he charged towards the villains, but his attempts to halt their escape failed as his fists whiffed through the intangible fog.

 **Can't… let them get awa-**

 _ **[Warning: Energy levels critical]**_

 _ **[Prioritizing core functions…; Suspending auxiliary functions…]**_

Seeing the traces of the purple fog fizzle away into nothingness, Izuku felt the adrenaline rush from his near-death experience fade away, and he collapsed to the ground unconscious.

"Young Midoriya!"

* * *

 _USJ entrance, fifteen minutes later_

Dozens of policemen and emergency responders have arrived at the scene. The villains involved in the attack were being arrested and escorted away in handcuffs. The scene was busy with orders being barked around and the shuffling of hurried footsteps.

"17… 18… 19… Besides that green-haired kid… Looks like they're all present and unharmed," said a police officer in a beige trench coat as he counted the students of Class 1-A.

Asui approached the policeman with a concerned look on her face. "Officer… What about Aizawa-sensei?"

"Surprisingly, he's just unconscious; we couldn't find any injuries on him, and his condition is stable. However, Thirteen has multiple tears across her back and upper arms, but we managed to stabilize her too."

"And what about Deku?!" Bakugou called out impatiently.

"Deku?"

"He means Midoriya. The last we time we saw him was before the teachers arrived, how is his condition?" Iida explained.

"He made it to the nurse's office a while ago. Recovery Girl wanted to give him a thorough examination to see if he has any internal injuries, your teachers will keep you updated on his status. For now, let's get you kids back to the classroom. This is no time to take your statements."

* * *

 _A few hours later, in the U.A. nurse's office_

"I see… I'm sorry you had to go through something like that, young man. You were very lucky things turned out the way it did, a heck of a miracle if I've ever seen one. You gave me quite a scare when they brought you in, you know?"

Izuku could only chuckle awkwardly at Recovery Girl's comment after he had explained the events of the USJ incident to her. He came into the clinic looking completely bloodied, with streaks of dried blood from every orifice on his head, yet he had no other symptoms of any injuries. A full medical examination of his body later revealed that he was simply severely dehydrated and exhausted.

 **Seems like Regeneration can't recover the lost water from all that bleeding…**

 **If I had bled just a little bit more back there I probably would've died of dehydration, Super Regen or not…**

"Just so you know, classes are cancelled tomorrow, but now that you're fully recovered, Principal Nezu wants you to meet him tomorrow morning, the police needs your statement for the investigation of this incident. I've also informed your teachers and classmates about your well-being too, but I haven't told them about your new… quirks yet, its better if you explain that to them yourself," Recovery Girl continued.

"Oh, okay, good to know. And uh… thanks for saving my life, Recovery Girl."

"Don't thank me, thank your parents for giving you that quirk of yours. Now get going sonny, I'm not wasting any more time monitoring a patient with a rapid healing quirk, I've got more important things to do!"

Realizing he was wearing a patient gown, Izuku asked: "Uhm… do you know where my costume is?"

"They're all in this bag, but I don't think you can wear them anymore. I had to cut them open as it was a medical emergency, sorry about that, kiddo," replied the nurse as she handed him a plastic bag from the floor.

"It's alright, I understand. How bad are they?" replied Izuku as he ruffled through the bag's contents.

 _ **[Analyzing target objects…]**_

 **The fabrics were completely torn up even before they were cut open…**

 **Even if they were intact, I don't think the blood would come off easy either…**

 **Aww man… The shoes that Mom gave me were ripped up too…**

 **Looks like the beatdown I took from the Nomu was even more vicious than I remembered…**

 **Sigh… I can make a new costume with Creation, since I remember what it looked like…**

 **But the shoes would never feel the same…**

"Cheer up, sonny. You can always replace a costume, what matters is that you're alright." Seeing Izuku's disheartened expression, Recovery Girl responded with a reassuring smile as she pointed to a door in the corner of the office. "By the way, your friend came by to bring you your belongings. I asked her to put them in the changing room."

"Oh, that must've been Kacchan! How is he-" Izuku paused with a raised eyebrow and turned to Recovery Girl. "Wait, 'her'?"

"Your vice class president, what was her name again… I updated her about your situation since she's the class rep in your absence. The changing room is by that corner."

Walking into the small room, Izuku could see his schoolbag on a bench along with a stack of neatly folded clothes beside it, and a pair of unfamiliar red shoes on the ground. There was also a paper note placed on top of his clothes, its contents written in neat and elegant handwriting:

* * *

 _Hey Midoriya. We're all really glad that you're okay. Recovery Girl informed me that your entire costume was damaged in the incident, so I came by to bring you your uniform. I realized you wouldn't have any shoes to walk home with, since you wore the same pair for both your uniform and costume. I wasn't sure I could properly recreate your red sneakers, and I didn't want to disturb your rest by asking you, so I designed you a new pair instead, I hope you don't mind._

 _Yaoyorozu_

* * *

After putting on his uniform, Izuku sat down on the bench to examine the new pair of shoes. They displayed a similar colour palette to his old sneakers, but the red had a darker velvet sheen that Izuku found oddly familiar. The sneakers were made from a multitude of cutting edge materials that were lightweight yet extremely durable, and the padding inside conformed to the shape of his feet like a second skin. Their overall design also seamlessly incorporated both form and function which gave it a futuristic look, yet its laces and bulky silhouette resembled enough of his old pair to remind Izuku of them.

 **She should already know that I can easily remake my shoes myself…**

 **And yet she went out of her way to make me this cool new pair? Wow…**

On his way out, Izuku gave the nurse a bow before leaving. "I'll be going then. Thanks for taking care of me!"

"Wait, before you go, just an advice. Now that you have a self-healing quirk, be careful not to get too reckless with your actions, okay? I've seen too many patients with such quirks who think they're invincible, and they often got themselves hospitalized, or even worse. Remember, never ever rely on your healing factor to save your life unless you absolutely have to."

"I… I see. I'll keep that in mind. Thanks again!"

* * *

 _A few hours ago, in an abandoned pub at an unknown location_

A dark purple smog coalesced into existence in the center of the room, revealing two humanoid figures. Shigaraki walked out of the portal and slumped onto a stool by the bar, looking defeated and completely drenched.

"We got crushed…" Shigaraki wheezed in a raspy voice. "Our cannon fodder were all taken down in a flash… Those kids were strong…"

"…Especially that brat… he took out Nomu before All Might even got there! And when the Symbol of Peace did arrive, he looked like he was in perfect health! You were wrong, Sensei!"

" _Oh? Explain._ " A deep ominous voice came from a blank LED screen on one end of the bar.

"That kid… he's got powers like yours! I saw him use different quirks! He's as tough as All Might too, he could still stand even after taking a bloody beating from Nomu!"

" _Is that so? Very interesting…_ " Despite the voice being transmitted through a cheap computer speaker, Shigaraki could audibly hear a smile behind those words.

"If that kid hadn't gotten in the way, we could have killed All Might!"

" _Now now… no use crying over spilled milk. We merely got ahead of ourselves. This trial was not a complete failure. In fact, I believe we have learned some valuable information. You will recover from this, find stronger troops! Take all the time you need!…_ "

"… _But before we proceed with anything else, tell me everything you can remember about this attack, in detail…_ "

* * *

 **As of 27th October 2019, chapters 1 to 12 have been rewritten.**

 **Also, chapter 13 will be released sometime before 2020, probably. No promises, this story is just something I doodle for fun once in a while. If I ever decide to abandon it, I will mention it in the description, but for now I have no intentions of canceling it.**

 **Feel free to leave a review, thanks for reading!**


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